head to head · open source
langchain vs langtrace
langchain has 146,538 GitHub stars, 24,504 forks, 492 open issues and last shipped yesterday. langtrace has 1,231 stars, 127 forks, 2 open issues and last shipped 10 months ago. langchain leads on adoption by 11,804% (146,538 vs 1,231 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 | ★ 147K | ★ 1.2K |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Python | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2025-11-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 25K | ⑂ 127 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick langchain if
- You weight community size — 147K 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
LangChain is an open source framework for building agents and LLM powered applications, written in Python and released under the MIT license. It lives in the AI and machine learning ecosystem, specifically among AI development platforms, and it works by chaining together interoperable components and third party integrations so that AI application development becomes simpler. The project describes itself as the agent engineering platform, and its abstractions are designed to keep applications working as the underlying technology evolves.
read the full langchain overview →
About langtrace
Langtrace is an open source, OpenTelemetry based end to end observability tool for LLM applications that captures and analyzes real time traces, evaluations and metrics across LLM APIs, vector databases and LLM frameworks, and it is aimed at developers and LLMOps teams who need to see what their LLM backed applications are actually doing in production.
read the full langtrace overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is langchain or langtrace more popular?
langchain has 146,538 GitHub stars and langtrace has 1,231. 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 (146,538 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose langtrace if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.