head to head · open source
headroom vs langgraph
headroom has 78,657 GitHub stars, 6,141 forks, 643 open issues and last shipped yesterday. langgraph has 44,336 stars, 7,622 forks, 786 open issues and last shipped yesterday. headroom leads on adoption by 77% (78,657 vs 44,336 stars). headroom is written in Python under Apache-2.0; langgraph is written in Python under MIT. headroom has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, langgraph 17%. langgraph was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (ai, langchain, 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
| headroom | langgraph | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 79K | ★ 44K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.1K | ⑂ 7.6K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick headroom if
- You weight community size — 79K 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 langgraph if
- You want the langgraph feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and langgraph fits your workflow better
About headroom
Quickstart · Install · Proof · Agents · Docs · Discord · llms.txt AI agents / LLMs: read /llms.txt here, or fetch the live index · full docs blob . Headroom compresses everything your AI agent reads — tool outputs, logs, RAG chunks, files, and conversation history — before it reaches the LLM. Same answers, fraction of the tokens. Compression runs on your machine; no prompt or file content is sent anywhere to be compressed. 10,144 → 1,260 tokens. The same FATAL found. What it does Library — compress(messages) in Python or TypeScript, inline in any app. Proxy — headroom proxy port 8787 , zero code changes, any…
read the full headroom overview →
About langgraph
Low level orchestration framework for building stateful agents. Trusted by companies shaping the future of agents – including Klarna, Replit, Elastic, and more – LangGraph is a low level orchestration framework for building, managing, and deploying long running, stateful agents. [!TIP] If you're looking to quickly build agents, check out Deep Agents — a higher level package built on LangGraph for agents that can plan, use subagents, and leverage file systems for complex tasks. For an equivalent JS/TS library, check out LangGraph.js and the JS docs. Why use LangGraph? LangGraph provides low level supporting…
read the full langgraph overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is headroom or langgraph more popular?
headroom has 78,657 GitHub stars and langgraph has 44,336. headroom has the larger community by that measure.
Are headroom and langgraph free?
Both are open source. headroom is licensed under Apache-2.0 and langgraph under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between headroom and langgraph?
headroom is written in Python and langgraph 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, headroom or langgraph?
Choose headroom if you want the larger community (78,657 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose langgraph if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.