head to head · open source
langchain vs graphrag
langchain has 148,892 GitHub stars, 25,031 forks, 492 open issues and last shipped yesterday. graphrag has 36,531 stars, 3,867 forks, 47 open issues and last shipped yesterday. langchain leads on adoption by 308% (148,892 vs 36,531 stars). langchain is written in Python under MIT; graphrag is written in Python under MIT. langchain has attracted 17% as many forks as stars, graphrag 11%. 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| langchain | graphrag | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 149K | ★ 37K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 25K | ⑂ 3.9K |
| 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 graphrag if
- You want the graphrag feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and graphrag 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 graphrag
GraphRAG [!WARNING] GraphRAG is a research project that explores the functional use of graphs to form a targeted context for question answering. Since our first release in July 2024 the capabilities of frontier models have changed dramatically, and our portfolio of research projects has diversified to match. This project is largely in maintenance mode, and won't be accepting new PRs or implementing new features. We'll perform bug fixes and dependency updates as appropriate, particularly to address CVEs as they arise. 👉 Microsoft Research Blog Post 👉 Read the docs 👉 GraphRAG Arxiv Overview The GraphRAG project…
read the full graphrag overview →
More in AI & Machine Learning
Related comparisons
More AI Development Platforms projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the AI Development Platforms field.
Frequently asked questions
Is langchain or graphrag more popular?
langchain has 148,892 GitHub stars and graphrag has 36,531. langchain has the larger community by that measure.
Are langchain and graphrag free?
Both are open source. langchain is licensed under MIT and graphrag under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between langchain and graphrag?
langchain is written in Python and graphrag 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 graphrag?
Choose langchain if you want the larger community (148,892 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose graphrag if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.