head to head · open source
langchain vs evolver
langchain has 148,892 GitHub stars, 25,031 forks, 492 open issues and last shipped yesterday. evolver has 8,715 stars, 847 forks, 26 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. langchain leads on adoption by 1,608% (148,892 vs 8,715 stars). langchain is written in Python under MIT; evolver is written in JavaScript under GPL-3.0. langchain has attracted 17% as many forks as stars, evolver 10%. langchain was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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 | evolver | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 149K | ★ 8.7K |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Python | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-01 |
| Forks | ⑂ 25K | ⑂ 847 |
| 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 evolver if
- You want the evolver feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and evolver 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 evolver
Evolver — Agent Self Evolving Engine evomap.ai Documentation Chinese / 中文文档 Japanese / 日本語ドキュメント Korean / 한국어 문서 GitHub Releases Notice — Moving Toward Source Available Evolver has been fully open source since our first release on 2026 02 01 (initially MIT, and GPL 3.0 or later since 2026 04 09). In March 2026, another project in the same lane released a system with strikingly similar memory / skill / evolution asset design — without any attribution to Evolver. Full analysis: Hermes Agent Self Evolution vs. Evolver: A Detailed Similarity Analysis. To protect the integrity of the work and keep investing in this…
read the full evolver overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is langchain or evolver more popular?
langchain has 148,892 GitHub stars and evolver has 8,715. langchain has the larger community by that measure.
Are langchain and evolver free?
Both are open source. langchain is licensed under MIT and evolver under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between langchain and evolver?
langchain is written in Python and evolver in JavaScript. 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 evolver?
Choose langchain if you want the larger community (148,892 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose evolver if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.