head to head · open source
langchain vs openscience
langchain has 146,562 GitHub stars, 24,508 forks, 492 open issues and last shipped yesterday. openscience has 3,597 stars, 478 forks, 21 open issues and last shipped yesterday. langchain leads on adoption by 3,975% (146,562 vs 3,597 stars). langchain is written in Python under MIT; openscience is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. langchain has attracted 17% as many forks as stars, openscience 13%. openscience was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (ai), 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 | openscience | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 147K | ★ 3.6K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 25K | ⑂ 478 |
| 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 openscience if
- You want the openscience 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 openscience 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 openscience
OpenScience is an Apache 2.0, TypeScript research agent and workbench that lets a researcher describe a goal in plain language and then reads the literature, writes and runs code, runs experiments, and writes up findings with every step on the record.
read the full openscience overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is langchain or openscience more popular?
langchain has 146,562 GitHub stars and openscience has 3,597. langchain has the larger community by that measure.
Are langchain and openscience free?
Both are open source. langchain is licensed under MIT and openscience under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between langchain and openscience?
langchain is written in Python and openscience 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 openscience?
Choose langchain if you want the larger community (146,562 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose openscience if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.