head to head · open source
haystack vs workflow
haystack has 26,559 GitHub stars, 3,153 forks, 143 open issues and last shipped yesterday. workflow has 2,425 stars, 365 forks, 360 open issues and last shipped today. haystack leads on adoption by 995% (26,559 vs 2,425 stars). haystack is written in Python under Apache-2.0; workflow is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. haystack has attracted 12% as many forks as stars, workflow 15%. 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 | ★ 2.4K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2026-09-20 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.2K | ⑂ 365 |
| 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 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 workflow
Workflow SDK is a TypeScript and JavaScript library that makes application functions durable. It lives in the TypeScript/JavaScript ecosystem and targets server side frameworks such as Next.js. The project is intended for apps and AI agents that need to continue work across failures, waits, and restarts.
read the full workflow overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is haystack or workflow more popular?
haystack has 26,559 GitHub stars and workflow has 2,425. 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 (26,559 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.