head to head · open source
headroom vs UltraRAG
headroom has 78,773 GitHub stars, 6,155 forks, 643 open issues and last shipped yesterday. UltraRAG has 5,738 stars, 459 forks, 11 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. headroom leads on adoption by 1,273% (78,773 vs 5,738 stars). headroom is written in Python under Apache-2.0; UltraRAG is written in Python under Apache-2.0. headroom has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, UltraRAG 8%. headroom was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (llm, mcp), 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 | UltraRAG | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 79K | ★ 5.7K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.2K | ⑂ 459 |
| 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 UltraRAG if
- You want the UltraRAG feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and UltraRAG 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 UltraRAG
Less Code, Lower Barrier, Faster Deployment 简体中文 English Latest News 🔥 [2026.01.23] 🎉 UltraRAG 3.0 Released: Say no to "black box" development—make every line of reasoning logic clearly visible 👉 📖 Blog [2026.01.20] 🎉 AgentCPM Report Model Released! DeepResearch is finally localized: 8B on device writing agent AgentCPM Report is open sourced 👉 🤗 Model Previous News [2025.11.11] 🎉 UltraRAG 2.1 Released: Enhanced knowledge ingestion & multimodal support, with a more complete unified evaluation system! [2025.09.23] New daily RAG paper digest, updated every day 👉 📖 Papers [2025.09.09] Released a…
read the full UltraRAG overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is headroom or UltraRAG more popular?
headroom has 78,773 GitHub stars and UltraRAG has 5,738. headroom has the larger community by that measure.
Are headroom and UltraRAG free?
Both are open source. headroom is licensed under Apache-2.0 and UltraRAG under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between headroom and UltraRAG?
headroom is written in Python and UltraRAG 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, headroom or UltraRAG?
Choose headroom if you want the larger community (78,773 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose UltraRAG if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.