head to head · open source

llama.cpp vs langchain4j

llama.cpp has 128,581 GitHub stars, 23,334 forks, 2,464 open issues and last shipped yesterday. langchain4j has 13,116 stars, 2,555 forks, 878 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. llama.cpp leads on adoption by 880% (128,581 vs 13,116 stars). llama.cpp is written in C++ under MIT; langchain4j is written in Java under Apache-2.0. llama.cpp has attracted 18% as many forks as stars, langchain4j 19%. llama.cpp 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.

llama.cpp ★ 129K langchain4j ★ 13K category AI & Machine Learning

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Side by side

	llama.cpp	langchain4j
GitHub stars	★ 129K	★ 13K
License	MIT	Apache-2.0
Written in	C++	Java
Last push	2026-09-17	2026-09-16
Forks	⑂ 23K	⑂ 2.6K
Self-hosting	Yes	Yes
Data ownership	Your server	Your server

pick llama.cpp if

You weight community size — 129K stars and counting
You want the MIT license terms
Your stack matches C++
You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance

full llama.cpp profile →

pick langchain4j if

You want the langchain4j feature set and don't need the biggest community
You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
Your stack matches Java
You evaluated both and langchain4j fits your workflow better

full langchain4j profile →

About llama.cpp

llama.cpp is a C/C++ library and set of command line tools for running large language models (LLMs) and vision language models (VLMs) locally. It enables inference without external dependencies, targeting diverse hardware including Apple Silicon, x86 CPUs, NVIDIA GPUs (via CUDA), AMD GPUs (via HIP), and other accelerators. The project lives in the ggml ecosystem, leveraging the ggml tensor computation library for low level operations and quantized model execution.

read the full llama.cpp overview →

About langchain4j

LangChain4j is an Apache 2.0, open source, idiomatic Java library for building LLM powered applications on the JVM, aimed at Java developers and enterprise teams who want one unified API over many LLM providers and embedding stores without leaving the Java ecosystem.

read the full langchain4j overview →

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Frequently asked questions

Is llama.cpp or langchain4j more popular?

llama.cpp has 128,581 GitHub stars and langchain4j has 13,116. llama.cpp has the larger community by that measure.

Are llama.cpp and langchain4j free?

Both are open source. llama.cpp is licensed under MIT and langchain4j under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.

What is the difference between llama.cpp and langchain4j?

llama.cpp is written in C++ and langchain4j 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, llama.cpp or langchain4j?

Choose llama.cpp if you want the larger community (128,581 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose langchain4j if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.