head to head · open source
haystack vs astron-agent
haystack has 26,924 GitHub stars, 3,388 forks, 143 open issues and last shipped yesterday. astron-agent has 8,948 stars, 909 forks, 46 open issues and last shipped yesterday. haystack leads on adoption by 201% (26,924 vs 8,948 stars). haystack is written in Python under Apache-2.0; astron-agent is written in Java under Apache-2.0. haystack has attracted 13% as many forks as stars, astron-agent 10%. haystack was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (agentic-ai, ai), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| haystack | astron-agent | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 27K | ★ 8.9K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | Java |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-11-04 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.4K | ⑂ 909 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick haystack if
- You weight community size — 27K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick astron-agent if
- You want the astron-agent feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and astron-agent fits your workflow better
About haystack
🎉🎊✨ Haystack 3.0 is out! ✨🎊🎉 Read the announcement here! 🥳 🎈 🎆 🪅 🎇 🍾 🥂 🎁 🌈 Haystack is an open source AI orchestration framework for building production ready LLM applications in Python. Design modular pipelines and agent workflows with explicit control over retrieval, routing, memory, and generation. Build scalable RAG systems, multimodal applications, semantic search, question answering, and autonomous agents, all in a transparent architecture that lets you experiment, customize deeply, and deploy with confidence. Table of Contents Installation Documentation Features Haystack Enterprise: Support &…
read the full haystack overview →
About astron-agent
English 简体中文 日本語 🔭 What is Astron Agent Astron Agent is an enterprise grade, commercial friendly Agentic Workflow development platform that integrates AI workflow orchestration, model management, AI and MCP tool integration, RPA automation, and team collaboration features. The platform supports high availability deployment, enabling organizations to rapidly build scalable, production ready intelligent agent applications and establish their AI foundation for the future. Why Choose Astron Agent? Stable and Reliable : Built on the same core technology as the iFLYTEK Astron Agent Platform, providing enterprise…
read the full astron-agent overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is haystack or astron-agent more popular?
haystack has 26,924 GitHub stars and astron-agent has 8,948. haystack has the larger community by that measure.
Are haystack and astron-agent free?
Both are open source. haystack is licensed under Apache-2.0 and astron-agent under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between haystack and astron-agent?
haystack is written in Python and astron-agent in Java. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, haystack or astron-agent?
Choose haystack if you want the larger community (26,924 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose astron-agent if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.