head to head · open source
Langfuse vs cognee
Langfuse has 36,898 GitHub stars, 4,146 forks, 926 open issues and last shipped yesterday. cognee has 33,012 stars, 3,448 forks, 495 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Langfuse leads on adoption by 12% (36,898 vs 33,012 stars). Langfuse is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; cognee is written in Python under Apache-2.0. Langfuse has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, cognee 10%. Langfuse was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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
| Langfuse | cognee | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 37K | ★ 33K |
| License | Custom / other | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.1K | ⑂ 3.4K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Langfuse if
- You weight community size — 37K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick cognee if
- You want the cognee 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 cognee fits your workflow better
About Langfuse
Langfuse Cloud · Self Host · Demo Docs · Report Bug · Feature Request · Changelog · Roadmap · Langfuse is an open source LLM engineering platform. It helps teams collaboratively develop, monitor, evaluate, and debug AI applications. Langfuse can be self hosted in minutes and is battle tested . Proudly made with ClickHouse open source database. 🧑💻 We're hiring Langfuse is growing fast (we doubled the team in the last 6 months) since January 2026 we're part of ClickHouse, we're hiring engineering hybrid across the EU. We hire engineers who love open source and great developer experiences. See open roles → ✨…
read the full Langfuse overview →
About cognee
Cognee The Open Source AI Memory Platform for Agents Demo . Docs . Learn More · Join Discord · Join r/AIMemory . Community Plugins & Add ons Cognee is the open source AI memory platform that gives AI agents persistent long term memory across sessions. Ingest data in any format, build a self hosted knowledge graph, and let every agent recall, connect, and act with full context 🌐 This README is also available in: Deutsch Español Français 日本語 한국어 Português Русский 中文 📄 Read the research paper: Optimizing the Interface Between Knowledge Graphs and LLMs for Complex Reasoning — Markovic et al., 2025 When to use…
read the full cognee overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Langfuse or cognee more popular?
Langfuse has 36,898 GitHub stars and cognee has 33,012. Langfuse has the larger community by that measure.
Are Langfuse and cognee free?
Both are open source. Langfuse has no licence declared in this registry, and cognee is licensed under Apache-2.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Langfuse and cognee?
Langfuse is written in TypeScript and cognee 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, Langfuse or cognee?
Choose Langfuse if you want the larger community (36,898 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose cognee if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.