head to head · open source
haystack vs django-rq
haystack has 26,924 GitHub stars, 3,388 forks, 143 open issues and last shipped yesterday. django-rq has 1,953 stars, 293 forks, 118 open issues and last shipped 24 days ago. haystack leads on adoption by 1,279% (26,924 vs 1,953 stars). haystack is written in Python under Apache-2.0; django-rq is written in Python under MIT. haystack has attracted 13% as many forks as stars, django-rq 15%. haystack 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 | django-rq | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 27K | ★ 2.0K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-10-12 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.4K | ⑂ 293 |
| 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 django-rq if
- You want the django-rq feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and django-rq 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 django-rq
Django RQ Django integration with RQ, a Redis based Python queuing library. Django RQ is a simple app that allows you to configure your queues in Django's settings.py and easily use them in your project. Support Django RQ If you find django rq useful, please consider supporting its development via Tidelift. Requirements Django (4.2+) RQ Installation Install django rq (or download from PyPI): Add django rq to INSTALLED APPS in settings.py : Configure your queues in Django's settings.py : Admin Integration New in Version 4.0 Django RQ automatically integrates with Django's admin interface. Once installed, navigate…
read the full django-rq overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is haystack or django-rq more popular?
haystack has 26,924 GitHub stars and django-rq has 1,953. haystack has the larger community by that measure.
Are haystack and django-rq free?
Both are open source. haystack is licensed under Apache-2.0 and django-rq under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between haystack and django-rq?
haystack is written in Python and django-rq 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, haystack or django-rq?
Choose haystack if you want the larger community (26,924 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose django-rq if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.