head to head · open source
headroom vs LightRAG
headroom has 78,657 GitHub stars, 6,141 forks, 643 open issues and last shipped yesterday. LightRAG has 40,487 stars, 5,752 forks, 222 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. headroom leads on adoption by 94% (78,657 vs 40,487 stars). headroom is written in Python under Apache-2.0; LightRAG is written in Python under MIT. headroom has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, LightRAG 14%. headroom was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (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 | LightRAG | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 79K | ★ 40K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-29 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.1K | ⑂ 5.8K |
| 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 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 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 LightRAG
🚀 LightRAG: Simple and Fast Retrieval Augmented Generation 🎉 News [2026.07]🎯[New Feature]: Add Smart Heading recognition feature for word documents. [2026.05]🎯[New Feature]: Merge RagAnything into LightRAG 🎉. Multimodal content parsing and extraction via MinerU / Docling services. [2026.05]🎯[New Feature]: Introducing four selectable text chunking strategies: Fix , Recursive , Vector , and Paragraph . [2026.05]🎯[New Feature]: Role specific LLM configuration support, 4 distinct roles: EXTRACT, QUERY, KEYWORDS, and VLM, with independent LLM settings. [2026.03]🎯[New Feature]: Integrated OpenSearch as a…
read the full LightRAG overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is headroom or LightRAG more popular?
headroom has 78,657 GitHub stars and LightRAG has 40,487. headroom has the larger community by that measure.
Are headroom and LightRAG free?
Both are open source. headroom is licensed under Apache-2.0 and LightRAG under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between headroom and LightRAG?
headroom 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, headroom or LightRAG?
Choose headroom if you want the larger community (78,657 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose LightRAG if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.