head to head · open source
vllm vs Langfuse
vllm has 92,028 GitHub stars, 22,335 forks, 7,953 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Langfuse has 34,729 stars, 3,785 forks, 926 open issues and last shipped yesterday. vllm leads on adoption by 165% (92,028 vs 34,729 stars). vllm is written in Python under Apache-2.0; Langfuse is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence. vllm has attracted 24% as many forks as stars, Langfuse 11%. Langfuse was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (llm), 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
| vllm | Langfuse | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 92K | ★ 35K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Custom / other |
| Written in | Python | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 22K | ⑂ 3.8K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick vllm if
- You weight community size — 92K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Langfuse if
- You want the Langfuse feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Langfuse fits your workflow better
About vllm
vLLM is a high throughput, memory efficient Python library for LLM inference and serving, built for ML engineers and platform teams who need to run open weight models on their own hardware at production scale.
About Langfuse
Langfuse is an open source LLM engineering platform for building, monitoring, and improving AI powered applications. It lives in the LLMops ecosystem and provides tooling for the full development lifecycle—from prompt iteration and evaluation to observability and dataset management. Built with TypeScript and powered by ClickHouse, it enables teams to track LLM calls, user sessions, and internal logic like retrieval or agent actions in a unified interface.
read the full Langfuse overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is vllm or Langfuse more popular?
vllm has 92,028 GitHub stars and Langfuse has 34,729. vllm has the larger community by that measure.
Are vllm and Langfuse free?
Both are open source. vllm is licensed under Apache-2.0, and Langfuse has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between vllm and Langfuse?
vllm is written in Python and Langfuse 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, vllm or Langfuse?
Choose vllm if you want the larger community (92,028 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Langfuse if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.