head to head · open source
langchain vs PixelRAG
langchain has 146,562 GitHub stars, 24,508 forks, 492 open issues and last shipped today. PixelRAG has 9,984 stars, 856 forks, 19 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. langchain leads on adoption by 1,368% (146,562 vs 9,984 stars). langchain is written in Python under MIT; PixelRAG is written in Python under Apache-2.0. langchain has attracted 17% as many forks as stars, PixelRAG 9%. langchain 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 | PixelRAG | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 147K | ★ 10.0K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-14 |
| Forks | ⑂ 25K | ⑂ 856 |
| 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 PixelRAG if
- You want the PixelRAG feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and PixelRAG 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 PixelRAG
PixelRAG is the official open source codebase for the paper "PIXELRAG: Web Screenshots Beat Text for Retrieval Augmented Generation," an Apache 2.0 Python project from Berkeley SkyLab, BAIR and Berkeley NLP that renders web pages, PDFs and images to screenshot tiles and retrieves over those images instead of parsed text, built for RAG engineers, agent developers and researchers who need tables, charts, diagrams and layout to survive retrieval.
read the full PixelRAG overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is langchain or PixelRAG more popular?
langchain has 146,562 GitHub stars and PixelRAG has 9,984. langchain has the larger community by that measure.
Are langchain and PixelRAG free?
Both are open source. langchain is licensed under MIT and PixelRAG under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between langchain and PixelRAG?
langchain is written in Python and PixelRAG 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 PixelRAG?
Choose langchain if you want the larger community (146,562 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose PixelRAG if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.