head to head · open source
langchain vs langgraph
langchain has 148,892 GitHub stars, 25,031 forks, 492 open issues and last shipped yesterday. langgraph has 44,336 stars, 7,622 forks, 786 open issues and last shipped yesterday. langchain leads on adoption by 236% (148,892 vs 44,336 stars). langchain is written in Python under MIT; langgraph is written in Python under MIT. langchain has attracted 17% as many forks as stars, langgraph 17%. langchain was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 11 topic tags (agents, ai, ai-agents, chatgpt), 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 | langgraph | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 149K | ★ 44K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 25K | ⑂ 7.6K |
| 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 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 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 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 langchain or langgraph more popular?
langchain has 148,892 GitHub stars and langgraph has 44,336. langchain has the larger community by that measure.
Are langchain and langgraph free?
Both are open source. langchain is licensed under MIT and langgraph under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between langchain and langgraph?
langchain 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, langchain or langgraph?
Choose langchain if you want the larger community (148,892 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose langgraph if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.