head to head · open source
LightRAG vs graphrag
LightRAG has 39,738 GitHub stars, 5,589 forks, 222 open issues and last shipped today. graphrag has 36,022 stars, 3,795 forks, 47 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. LightRAG leads on adoption by 10% (39,738 vs 36,022 stars). LightRAG is written in Python under MIT; graphrag is written in Python under MIT. LightRAG has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, graphrag 11%. LightRAG was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 4 topic tags (gpt, graphrag, llm, rag), 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
| LightRAG | graphrag | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 36K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.6K | ⑂ 3.8K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick LightRAG if
- You weight community size — 40K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick graphrag if
- You want the graphrag feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and graphrag fits your workflow better
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 →
About graphrag
GraphRAG is a modular, Python based, MIT licensed data pipeline and transformation suite from Microsoft Research that uses large language models to extract structured data from unstructured text, then exploits the resulting knowledge graph to form targeted context for question answering over private data.
read the full graphrag overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is LightRAG or graphrag more popular?
LightRAG has 39,738 GitHub stars and graphrag has 36,022. LightRAG has the larger community by that measure.
Are LightRAG and graphrag free?
Both are open source. LightRAG is licensed under MIT and graphrag under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between LightRAG and graphrag?
LightRAG is written in Python and graphrag 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, LightRAG or graphrag?
Choose LightRAG if you want the larger community (39,738 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose graphrag if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.