head to head · open source
headroom vs langtrace
headroom has 78,773 GitHub stars, 6,155 forks, 643 open issues and last shipped yesterday. langtrace has 1,233 stars, 128 forks, 2 open issues and last shipped 12 months ago. headroom leads on adoption by 6,289% (78,773 vs 1,233 stars). headroom is written in Python under Apache-2.0; langtrace is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0. headroom has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, langtrace 10%. headroom was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (ai, langchain, 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.
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Side by side
| headroom | langtrace | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 79K | ★ 1.2K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Python | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2025-11-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.2K | ⑂ 128 |
| 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 langtrace if
- You want the langtrace feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and langtrace 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 langtrace
Langtrace Open Source Observability for LLM Applications 📚 Table of Contents ✨ Features 🚀 Quick Start 🔗 Integrations 🌐 Getting Started 🏠 Self Hosting 📐 Architecture 🤝 Contributing 🔒 Security ❓ FAQ 👥 Contributors 📜 License Langtrace is an open source observability software which lets you capture, debug and analyze traces and metrics from all your applications that leverages LLM APIs, Vector Databases and LLM based Frameworks. ✨ Features 📊 Open Telemetry Support : Built on OTEL standards for comprehensive tracing 🔄 Real time Monitoring : Track LLM API calls, vector operations, and framework usage 🎯…
read the full langtrace overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is headroom or langtrace more popular?
headroom has 78,773 GitHub stars and langtrace has 1,233. headroom has the larger community by that measure.
Are headroom and langtrace free?
Both are open source. headroom is licensed under Apache-2.0 and langtrace under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between headroom and langtrace?
headroom is written in Python and langtrace 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, headroom or langtrace?
Choose headroom if you want the larger community (78,773 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose langtrace if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.