head to head · open source
langchain vs agency-agents-zh
langchain has 146,538 GitHub stars, 24,504 forks, 492 open issues and last shipped yesterday. agency-agents-zh has 20,753 stars, 3,347 forks, 1 open issues and last shipped yesterday. langchain leads on adoption by 606% (146,538 vs 20,753 stars). langchain is written in Python under MIT; agency-agents-zh is written in Shell under MIT. langchain has attracted 17% as many forks as stars, agency-agents-zh 16%. langchain 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
| langchain | agency-agents-zh | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 147K | ★ 21K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Shell |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 25K | ⑂ 3.3K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick langchain if
- You weight community size — 147K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick agency-agents-zh if
- You want the agency-agents-zh feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Shell
- You evaluated both and agency-agents-zh fits your workflow better
About langchain
LangChain is an open source framework for building agents and LLM powered applications, written in Python and released under the MIT license. It lives in the AI and machine learning ecosystem, specifically among AI development platforms, and it works by chaining together interoperable components and third party integrations so that AI application development becomes simpler. The project describes itself as the agent engineering platform, and its abstractions are designed to keep applications working as the underlying technology evolves.
read the full langchain overview →
About agency-agents-zh
agency agents zh is a Chinese language registry of 277 plug and play AI expert roles, built for individual developers, small teams, and China market operators who want named specialists with their own personas and deliverables driving tools such as Claude Code, Cursor, and Copilot.
read the full agency-agents-zh overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is langchain or agency-agents-zh more popular?
langchain has 146,538 GitHub stars and agency-agents-zh has 20,753. langchain has the larger community by that measure.
Are langchain and agency-agents-zh free?
Both are open source. langchain is licensed under MIT and agency-agents-zh under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between langchain and agency-agents-zh?
langchain is written in Python and agency-agents-zh in Shell. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, langchain or agency-agents-zh?
Choose langchain if you want the larger community (146,538 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose agency-agents-zh if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.