head to head · open source
langchain vs open-science
langchain has 146,696 GitHub stars, 24,530 forks, 492 open issues and last shipped yesterday. open-science has 4,696 stars, 287 forks, 40 open issues and last shipped today. langchain leads on adoption by 3,024% (146,696 vs 4,696 stars). langchain is written in Python under MIT; open-science is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. langchain has attracted 17% as many forks as stars, open-science 6%. open-science 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 | open-science | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 147K | ★ 4.7K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2026-09-20 |
| Forks | ⑂ 25K | ⑂ 287 |
| 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 open-science if
- You want the open-science feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and open-science 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 open-science
AIPOCH Open Science is an open source, local first, model agnostic AI research workbench that lets scientists and researchers run computational and data intensive research with scientific AI agents inside a single desktop workspace on macOS, Windows, and Linux.
read the full open-science overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is langchain or open-science more popular?
langchain has 146,696 GitHub stars and open-science has 4,696. langchain has the larger community by that measure.
Are langchain and open-science free?
Both are open source. langchain is licensed under MIT and open-science under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between langchain and open-science?
langchain is written in Python and open-science 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 open-science?
Choose langchain if you want the larger community (146,696 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose open-science if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.