head to head · open source
langchain vs elephant-goldfish-model
langchain has 148,587 GitHub stars, 24,950 forks, 492 open issues and last shipped yesterday. elephant-goldfish-model has 3,510 stars, 230 forks, 60 open issues and last shipped yesterday. langchain leads on adoption by 4,133% (148,587 vs 3,510 stars). langchain is written in Python under MIT; elephant-goldfish-model is written in Python under Apache-2.0. langchain has attracted 17% as many forks as stars, elephant-goldfish-model 7%. elephant-goldfish-model was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (ai-agents, gemini), 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 | elephant-goldfish-model | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 149K | ★ 3.5K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-10-28 | 2026-10-28 |
| Forks | ⑂ 25K | ⑂ 230 |
| 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 elephant-goldfish-model if
- You want the elephant-goldfish-model 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 elephant-goldfish-model 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 elephant-goldfish-model
Design with an elephant. Review with a goldfish. Install  ·  Quickstart  ·  Documentation  ·  Website Thousands of Google engineers use EGM, an open source plugin, to draft specs with deep context agents and stress test them with zero context subagents before writing code. Elephant holds your project context and drafts the specification. Goldfish reviewers examine the draft and referenced source material without the earlier conversation, helping expose unstated assumptions and blind spots. You make the architectural trade offs and approve the specification before implementing. Use…
read the full elephant-goldfish-model overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is langchain or elephant-goldfish-model more popular?
langchain has 148,587 GitHub stars and elephant-goldfish-model has 3,510. langchain has the larger community by that measure.
Are langchain and elephant-goldfish-model free?
Both are open source. langchain is licensed under MIT and elephant-goldfish-model under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between langchain and elephant-goldfish-model?
langchain is written in Python and elephant-goldfish-model 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 elephant-goldfish-model?
Choose langchain if you want the larger community (148,587 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose elephant-goldfish-model if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.