head to head · open source
langchain vs Portkey AI Gateway
langchain has 146,538 GitHub stars, 24,504 forks, 492 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Portkey AI Gateway has 13,022 stars, 1,305 forks, 262 open issues and last shipped 4 months ago. langchain leads on adoption by 1,025% (146,538 vs 13,022 stars). langchain is written in Python under MIT; Portkey AI Gateway is written in TypeScript under MIT. langchain has attracted 17% as many forks as stars, Portkey AI Gateway 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 (generative-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.
← all 8884 open source comparisons
Side by side
| langchain | Portkey AI Gateway | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 147K | ★ 13K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Python | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-05-25 |
| Forks | ⑂ 25K | ⑂ 1.3K |
| 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 Portkey AI Gateway if
- You want the Portkey AI Gateway feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Portkey AI Gateway 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 Portkey AI Gateway
Portkey AI Gateway is an open source TypeScript project that routes AI application requests through one API to many language, vision, audio, and image models. It belongs to the AI development platform ecosystem and is described as an AI gateway, LLM gateway, and generative AI gateway. The project is licensed under MIT, and its topics include llmops, langchain, mcp, mcp client, and mcp gateway.
read the full Portkey AI Gateway overview →
More in AI & Machine Learning
Related comparisons
More AI Development Platforms projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the AI Development Platforms field.
Frequently asked questions
Is langchain or Portkey AI Gateway more popular?
langchain has 146,538 GitHub stars and Portkey AI Gateway has 13,022. langchain has the larger community by that measure.
Are langchain and Portkey AI Gateway free?
Both are open source. langchain is licensed under MIT and Portkey AI Gateway under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between langchain and Portkey AI Gateway?
langchain is written in Python and Portkey AI Gateway 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 Portkey AI Gateway?
Choose langchain if you want the larger community (146,538 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Portkey AI Gateway if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.