head to head · open source
langchain vs unstract
langchain has 148,892 GitHub stars, 25,031 forks, 492 open issues and last shipped yesterday. unstract has 7,402 stars, 747 forks, 96 open issues and last shipped yesterday. langchain leads on adoption by 1,912% (148,892 vs 7,402 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 | ★ 149K | ★ 7.4K |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 25K | ⑂ 747 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick langchain if
- You weight community size — 149K 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
The agent engineering platform. LangChain is a framework for building agents and LLM powered applications. It helps you chain together interoperable components and third party integrations to simplify AI application development — all while future proofing decisions as the underlying technology evolves. [!TIP] Just getting started? Check out Deep Agents — a higher level package built on LangChain for agents that have built in capabilities for common usage patterns such as planning, subagents, file system usage, and more. Quickstart If you're looking for more advanced customization or agent orchestration, check…
read the full langchain overview →
About unstract
Unstract Turn Unstructured Documents into Structured Data Documentation Enterprise What is Unstract? Unstract uses LLMs to extract structured JSON from documents — PDFs, images, scans, you name it. Define what you want to extract using natural language prompts, and deploy as an API or ETL pipeline. Built for teams in finance , insurance , healthcare , KYC/compliance , and much more. Current State vs. Unstract ⭐ If Unstract helps you, star this repo! ✨ Key Features Prompt Studio — Define document extraction schemas with natural language. Docs → API Deployment — Send a document over REST API, get JSON back. Docs →…
read the full unstract overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is langchain or unstract more popular?
langchain has 148,892 GitHub stars and unstract has 7,402. 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 (148,892 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose unstract if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.