head to head · open source
langchain vs crewAI
langchain has 146,562 GitHub stars, 24,508 forks, 492 open issues and last shipped yesterday. crewAI has 58,726 stars, 8,498 forks, 353 open issues and last shipped yesterday. langchain leads on adoption by 150% (146,562 vs 58,726 stars). langchain is written in Python under MIT; crewAI is written in Python under MIT. langchain has attracted 17% as many forks as stars, crewAI 14%. crewAI was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (agents, ai, 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 | crewAI | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 147K | ★ 59K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 25K | ⑂ 8.5K |
| 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 crewAI if
- You want the crewAI feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and crewAI 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 crewAI
CrewAI is an open source Python framework for orchestrating role playing, autonomous AI agents through collaborative Crews and event driven Flows, released under the MIT licence and built for developers and teams producing multi agent workflows in production.
read the full crewAI overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is langchain or crewAI more popular?
langchain has 146,562 GitHub stars and crewAI has 58,726. langchain has the larger community by that measure.
Are langchain and crewAI free?
Both are open source. langchain is licensed under MIT and crewAI under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between langchain and crewAI?
langchain is written in Python and crewAI 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, langchain or crewAI?
Choose langchain if you want the larger community (146,562 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose crewAI if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.