head to head · open source
headroom vs graphrag
headroom has 78,657 GitHub stars, 6,141 forks, 643 open issues and last shipped yesterday. graphrag has 36,531 stars, 3,867 forks, 47 open issues and last shipped yesterday. headroom leads on adoption by 115% (78,657 vs 36,531 stars). headroom is written in Python under Apache-2.0; graphrag is written in Python under MIT. headroom has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, graphrag 11%. headroom was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (llm), 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| headroom | graphrag | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 79K | ★ 37K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.1K | ⑂ 3.9K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick headroom if
- You weight community size — 79K 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 graphrag if
- You want the graphrag feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and graphrag fits your workflow better
About headroom
Quickstart · Install · Proof · Agents · Docs · Discord · llms.txt AI agents / LLMs: read /llms.txt here, or fetch the live index · full docs blob . Headroom compresses everything your AI agent reads — tool outputs, logs, RAG chunks, files, and conversation history — before it reaches the LLM. Same answers, fraction of the tokens. Compression runs on your machine; no prompt or file content is sent anywhere to be compressed. 10,144 → 1,260 tokens. The same FATAL found. What it does Library — compress(messages) in Python or TypeScript, inline in any app. Proxy — headroom proxy port 8787 , zero code changes, any…
read the full headroom overview →
About graphrag
GraphRAG [!WARNING] GraphRAG is a research project that explores the functional use of graphs to form a targeted context for question answering. Since our first release in July 2024 the capabilities of frontier models have changed dramatically, and our portfolio of research projects has diversified to match. This project is largely in maintenance mode, and won't be accepting new PRs or implementing new features. We'll perform bug fixes and dependency updates as appropriate, particularly to address CVEs as they arise. 👉 Microsoft Research Blog Post 👉 Read the docs 👉 GraphRAG Arxiv Overview The GraphRAG project…
read the full graphrag overview →
More in AI & Machine Learning
Related comparisons
More AI Development Platforms projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the AI Development Platforms field.
Frequently asked questions
Is headroom or graphrag more popular?
headroom has 78,657 GitHub stars and graphrag has 36,531. headroom has the larger community by that measure.
Are headroom and graphrag free?
Both are open source. headroom is licensed under Apache-2.0 and graphrag under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between headroom and graphrag?
headroom is written in Python and graphrag in Python. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, headroom or graphrag?
Choose headroom if you want the larger community (78,657 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose graphrag if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.