head to head · open source
LightRAG vs ruoyi-ai
LightRAG has 40,517 GitHub stars, 5,758 forks, 222 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. ruoyi-ai has 5,805 stars, 1,430 forks, 7 open issues and last shipped 15 days ago. LightRAG leads on adoption by 598% (40,517 vs 5,805 stars). LightRAG is written in Python under MIT; ruoyi-ai is written in Java under MIT. LightRAG has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, ruoyi-ai 25%. LightRAG was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (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 | ruoyi-ai | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 41K | ★ 5.8K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Java |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-10-21 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.8K | ⑂ 1.4K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick LightRAG if
- You weight community size — 41K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick ruoyi-ai if
- You want the ruoyi-ai feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and ruoyi-ai fits your workflow better
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 →
About ruoyi-ai
RuoYi AI [![Contributors][contributors shield]][contributors url] [![Forks][forks shield]][forks url] [![Stargazers][stars shield]][stars url] [![Issues][issues shield]][issues url] [![MIT License][license shield]][license url] Enterprise Grade AI Assistant Platform An out of the box full stack AI platform supporting multi agent collaboration, Supervisor mode orchestration, and multiple decision models, with advanced RAG technology and visual workflow orchestration capabilities 中文 📖 Documentation 🚀 Live Demo 🐛 Report Issues 💡 Feature Requests 🚀 Live Demo ✨ Core Features Project Repositories Partner Projects…
read the full ruoyi-ai overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is LightRAG or ruoyi-ai more popular?
LightRAG has 40,517 GitHub stars and ruoyi-ai has 5,805. LightRAG has the larger community by that measure.
Are LightRAG and ruoyi-ai free?
Both are open source. LightRAG is licensed under MIT and ruoyi-ai under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between LightRAG and ruoyi-ai?
LightRAG is written in Python and ruoyi-ai in Java. 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 ruoyi-ai?
Choose LightRAG if you want the larger community (40,517 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose ruoyi-ai if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.