head to head · open source
langchain vs langtrace
langchain has 148,892 GitHub stars, 25,031 forks, 492 open issues and last shipped yesterday. langtrace has 1,233 stars, 128 forks, 2 open issues and last shipped 12 months ago. langchain leads on adoption by 11,976% (148,892 vs 1,233 stars). langchain is written in Python under MIT; langtrace is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0. langchain has attracted 17% as many forks as stars, langtrace 10%. langchain was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (ai, langchain), 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 | langtrace | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 149K | ★ 1.2K |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Python | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2025-11-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 25K | ⑂ 128 |
| 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 langtrace if
- You want the langtrace feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and langtrace 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 langtrace
Langtrace Open Source Observability for LLM Applications 📚 Table of Contents ✨ Features 🚀 Quick Start 🔗 Integrations 🌐 Getting Started 🏠 Self Hosting 📐 Architecture 🤝 Contributing 🔒 Security ❓ FAQ 👥 Contributors 📜 License Langtrace is an open source observability software which lets you capture, debug and analyze traces and metrics from all your applications that leverages LLM APIs, Vector Databases and LLM based Frameworks. ✨ Features 📊 Open Telemetry Support : Built on OTEL standards for comprehensive tracing 🔄 Real time Monitoring : Track LLM API calls, vector operations, and framework usage 🎯…
read the full langtrace overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is langchain or langtrace more popular?
langchain has 148,892 GitHub stars and langtrace has 1,233. langchain has the larger community by that measure.
Are langchain and langtrace free?
Both are open source. langchain is licensed under MIT and langtrace under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between langchain and langtrace?
langchain is written in Python and langtrace in TypeScript. 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 langtrace?
Choose langchain if you want the larger community (148,892 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose langtrace if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.