head to head · open source
llama_index vs paradedb
llama_index has 52,202 GitHub stars, 8,162 forks, 770 open issues and last shipped yesterday. paradedb has 9,276 stars, 457 forks, 193 open issues and last shipped yesterday. llama_index leads on adoption by 463% (52,202 vs 9,276 stars). llama_index is written in Python under MIT; paradedb is written in Rust under AGPL-3.0. llama_index has attracted 16% as many forks as stars, paradedb 5%. paradedb 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.
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Side by side
| llama_index | paradedb | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 52K | ★ 9.3K |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Python | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 8.2K | ⑂ 457 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick llama_index if
- You weight community size — 52K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick paradedb if
- You want the paradedb feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and paradedb fits your workflow better
About llama_index
LlamaIndex is an MIT licensed, open source Python framework for building agentic applications — retrieval augmented generation systems, agents and multi agent workflows — on top of private documents and data, and it is aimed at AI engineers and teams who need to connect large language models to their own sources of context.
read the full llama_index overview →
About paradedb
ParadeDB is an AGPL 3.0 PostgreSQL extension, written in Rust and distributed from the paradedb repository, that upgrades Postgres with full text search, BM25 scoring, vector retrieval, and aggregations so application data and the search engine live in one database — intended for teams that would otherwise deploy and sync a separate search system.
read the full paradedb overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is llama_index or paradedb more popular?
llama_index has 52,202 GitHub stars and paradedb has 9,276. llama_index has the larger community by that measure.
Are llama_index and paradedb free?
Both are open source. llama_index is licensed under MIT and paradedb under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between llama_index and paradedb?
llama_index is written in Python and paradedb in Rust. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, llama_index or paradedb?
Choose llama_index if you want the larger community (52,202 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose paradedb if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.