head to head · open source
haystack vs cloudstack
haystack has 26,559 GitHub stars, 3,153 forks, 143 open issues and last shipped yesterday. cloudstack has 3,075 stars, 1,385 forks, 1,048 open issues and last shipped yesterday. haystack leads on adoption by 764% (26,559 vs 3,075 stars). haystack is written in Python under Apache-2.0; cloudstack is written in Java under Apache-2.0. haystack has attracted 12% as many forks as stars, cloudstack 45%. cloudstack was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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 | cloudstack | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 27K | ★ 3.1K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | Java |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.2K | ⑂ 1.4K |
| 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 cloudstack if
- You want the cloudstack 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 cloudstack fits your workflow better
About haystack
Haystack is an open source AI orchestration framework written in Python under the Apache 2.0 licence, for building context engineered, production ready large language model applications as modular pipelines and agent workflows with explicit control over retrieval, routing, memory, and generation, and it is aimed at developers and teams building scalable agents, retrieval augmented generation, multimodal applications, semantic search, question answering, and conversational systems.
read the full haystack overview →
About cloudstack
Apache CloudStack is an open source Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) cloud computing platform, written primarily in Java and released under the Apache 2.0 licence, that deploys and manages large networks of virtual machines for service providers, enterprises, and operators who need a cloud they control.
read the full cloudstack overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is haystack or cloudstack more popular?
haystack has 26,559 GitHub stars and cloudstack has 3,075. haystack has the larger community by that measure.
Are haystack and cloudstack free?
Both are open source. haystack is licensed under Apache-2.0 and cloudstack under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between haystack and cloudstack?
haystack is written in Python and cloudstack 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 cloudstack?
Choose haystack if you want the larger community (26,559 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose cloudstack if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.