head to head · open source
graphify vs LightRAG
graphify has 119,123 GitHub stars, 11,519 forks, 1,350 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. LightRAG has 39,738 stars, 5,589 forks, 222 open issues and last shipped yesterday. graphify leads on adoption by 200% (119,123 vs 39,738 stars). graphify is written in Python under Apache-2.0; LightRAG is written in Python under MIT. graphify has attracted 10% 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. The two share 2 topic tags (graphrag, knowledge-graph), 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
| graphify | LightRAG | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 119K | ★ 40K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-16 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 12K | ⑂ 5.6K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick graphify if
- You weight community size — 119K 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 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 graphify
graphify is an Apache 2.0 Python CLI and /graphify skill that turns a whole project — code, docs, SQL schemas, configs, PDFs, images, and video — into a queryable knowledge graph, built for developers and AI agent users in Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, and Gemini CLI who want to query a codebase instead of grepping through files.
read the full graphify 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 graphify or LightRAG more popular?
graphify has 119,123 GitHub stars and LightRAG has 39,738. graphify has the larger community by that measure.
Are graphify and LightRAG free?
Both are open source. graphify is licensed under Apache-2.0 and LightRAG under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between graphify and LightRAG?
graphify 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, graphify or LightRAG?
Choose graphify if you want the larger community (119,123 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose LightRAG if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.