head to head · open source
langchain vs crewAI
langchain has 148,892 GitHub stars, 25,031 forks, 492 open issues and last shipped yesterday. crewAI has 60,429 stars, 9,002 forks, 353 open issues and last shipped yesterday. langchain leads on adoption by 146% (148,892 vs 60,429 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 15%. langchain 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 | ★ 149K | ★ 60K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 25K | ⑂ 9.0K |
| 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 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
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 crewAI
Homepage · Open Source · Docs · Start Cloud Trial · Blog · Forum Fast and Flexible Multi Agent Automation Framework CrewAI is an open source Python framework with high level abstractions and low level APIs for building production ready multi agent workflows. It gives developers autonomous agent collaboration through Crews and precise, event driven control through Flows. CrewAI Crews : Optimize for autonomy and collaborative intelligence with role based AI agents. CrewAI Flows : Build event driven automations that combine precise workflow control, single LLM calls, and native support for Crews. With over 100,000…
read the full crewAI overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is langchain or crewAI more popular?
langchain has 148,892 GitHub stars and crewAI has 60,429. 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 (148,892 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose crewAI if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.