head to head · open source
haystack vs workflow
haystack has 26,924 GitHub stars, 3,388 forks, 143 open issues and last shipped yesterday. workflow has 2,490 stars, 388 forks, 360 open issues and last shipped yesterday. haystack leads on adoption by 981% (26,924 vs 2,490 stars). haystack is written in Python under Apache-2.0; workflow is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. haystack has attracted 13% as many forks as stars, workflow 16%. workflow was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (ai-agents), 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 | workflow | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 27K | ★ 2.5K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-11-04 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.4K | ⑂ 388 |
| 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 workflow if
- You want the workflow feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and workflow 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 workflow
Workflow SDK Workflow SDK makes TypeScript and JavaScript functions durable. It persists workflow progress, retries failed steps, and provides built in observability. Workflows can suspend without using compute while they wait. Quick start Install the SDK in an existing project: Configure the integration for your framework. For example, with Next.js: Then start a workflow from an API route, Server Action, or other server side code: Run your app, then open the local observability UI in another terminal: Choose your framework in the getting started guides. [!NOTE] The workflow package includes its full…
read the full workflow overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is haystack or workflow more popular?
haystack has 26,924 GitHub stars and workflow has 2,490. haystack has the larger community by that measure.
Are haystack and workflow free?
Both are open source. haystack is licensed under Apache-2.0 and workflow under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between haystack and workflow?
haystack is written in Python and workflow in TypeScript. 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 workflow?
Choose haystack if you want the larger community (26,924 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose workflow if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.