head to head · open source
langchain vs ChainForge
langchain has 148,892 GitHub stars, 25,031 forks, 492 open issues and last shipped yesterday. ChainForge has 3,040 stars, 260 forks, 71 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. langchain leads on adoption by 4,798% (148,892 vs 3,040 stars). langchain is written in Python under MIT; ChainForge is written in TypeScript under MIT. langchain has attracted 17% as many forks as stars, ChainForge 9%. 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), 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 | ChainForge | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 149K | ★ 3.0K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Python | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-29 |
| Forks | ⑂ 25K | ⑂ 260 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick langchain if
- You weight community size — 149K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick ChainForge if
- You want the ChainForge feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and ChainForge fits your workflow better
About langchain
The agent engineering platform. LangChain is a framework for building agents and LLM powered applications. It helps you chain together interoperable components and third party integrations to simplify AI application development — all while future proofing decisions as the underlying technology evolves. [!TIP] Just getting started? Check out Deep Agents — a higher level package built on LangChain for agents that have built in capabilities for common usage patterns such as planning, subagents, file system usage, and more. Quickstart If you're looking for more advanced customization or agent orchestration, check…
read the full langchain overview →
About ChainForge
⛓️🛠️ ChainForge An open source visual environment for battle testing prompts to LLMs. ChainForge is a data flow prompt engineering environment for analyzing and evaluating LLM responses. It enables rapid fire, quick and dirty comparison of prompts, models, and response quality that goes beyond ad hoc chatting with individual LLMs. With ChainForge, you can: Query multiple LLMs at once to test prompt ideas and variations quickly and effectively. Compare response quality across prompt permutations, across models, and across model settings to choose the best prompt and model for your use case. Setup evaluation…
read the full ChainForge overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is langchain or ChainForge more popular?
langchain has 148,892 GitHub stars and ChainForge has 3,040. langchain has the larger community by that measure.
Are langchain and ChainForge free?
Both are open source. langchain is licensed under MIT and ChainForge under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between langchain and ChainForge?
langchain is written in Python and ChainForge 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, langchain or ChainForge?
Choose langchain if you want the larger community (148,892 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose ChainForge if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.