head to head · open source
langchain vs unstract
langchain has 146,562 GitHub stars, 24,508 forks, 492 open issues and last shipped today. unstract has 7,244 stars, 716 forks, 96 open issues and last shipped today. langchain leads on adoption by 1,923% (146,562 vs 7,244 stars). langchain is written in Python under MIT; unstract is written in Python under AGPL-3.0. langchain has attracted 17% as many forks as stars, unstract 10%. unstract was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (ai-agents, generative-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 | unstract | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 147K | ★ 7.2K |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 25K | ⑂ 716 |
| 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 unstract if
- You want the unstract feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and unstract 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 unstract
Unstract is an open source platform that uses large language models to extract structured JSON from unstructured documents such as PDFs, images, and scans, and it is built for teams in finance, insurance, healthcare, and KYC/compliance that need that extraction delivered as an API or an ETL pipeline.
read the full unstract overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is langchain or unstract more popular?
langchain has 146,562 GitHub stars and unstract has 7,244. langchain has the larger community by that measure.
Are langchain and unstract free?
Both are open source. langchain is licensed under MIT and unstract under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between langchain and unstract?
langchain is written in Python and unstract 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 unstract?
Choose langchain if you want the larger community (146,562 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose unstract if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.