head to head · open source
headroom vs langtrace
headroom has 73,130 GitHub stars, 5,624 forks, 643 open issues and last shipped yesterday. langtrace has 1,232 stars, 127 forks, 2 open issues and last shipped 10 months ago. headroom leads on adoption by 5,836% (73,130 vs 1,232 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 | ★ 73K | ★ 1.2K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Python | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2025-11-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.6K | ⑂ 127 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick headroom if
- You weight community size — 73K 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
Headroom is an Apache 2.0 Python library, local proxy, agent wrapper and MCP server that compresses tool outputs, logs, files, RAG chunks and conversation history before they reach an LLM, and it is built for developers running AI coding agents or LLM applications who want to cut token usage without changing the answers they get.
read the full headroom overview →
About langtrace
Langtrace is an open source, OpenTelemetry based end to end observability tool for LLM applications that captures and analyzes real time traces, evaluations and metrics across LLM APIs, vector databases and LLM frameworks, and it is aimed at developers and LLMOps teams who need to see what their LLM backed applications are actually doing in production.
read the full langtrace overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is headroom or langtrace more popular?
headroom has 73,130 GitHub stars and langtrace has 1,232. 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 (73,130 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.