head to head · open source
Agent-Reach vs LightRAG
Agent-Reach has 82,870 GitHub stars, 7,248 forks, 137 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. LightRAG has 39,738 stars, 5,589 forks, 222 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Agent-Reach leads on adoption by 109% (82,870 vs 39,738 stars). Agent-Reach is written in Python under MIT; LightRAG is written in Python under MIT. Agent-Reach has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, LightRAG 14%. LightRAG 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
| Agent-Reach | LightRAG | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 83K | ★ 40K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-15 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 7.2K | ⑂ 5.6K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Agent-Reach if
- You weight community size — 83K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick LightRAG if
- You want the LightRAG feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and LightRAG fits your workflow better
About Agent-Reach
Agent Reach is an open source Python command line tool that gives AI agents the ability to read and search the wider internet — Twitter/X, Reddit, YouTube, GitHub, Bilibili, and XiaoHongShu among others — for developers and agent builders who want that reach without paying for platform APIs.
read the full Agent-Reach overview →
About LightRAG
LightRAG is a Python retrieval augmented generation framework, released under the MIT licence and presented in an EMNLP 2025 paper, that builds a knowledge graph over documents so that queries can be answered from both graph structure and vector similarity.
read the full LightRAG overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Agent-Reach or LightRAG more popular?
Agent-Reach has 82,870 GitHub stars and LightRAG has 39,738. Agent-Reach has the larger community by that measure.
Are Agent-Reach and LightRAG free?
Both are open source. Agent-Reach is licensed under MIT and LightRAG under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Agent-Reach and LightRAG?
Agent-Reach is written in Python and LightRAG 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, Agent-Reach or LightRAG?
Choose Agent-Reach if you want the larger community (82,870 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose LightRAG if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.