head to head · open source
n8n vs ragflow
n8n has 209,375 GitHub stars, 61,361 forks, 1,143 open issues and last shipped yesterday. ragflow has 93,365 stars, 11,207 forks, 1,525 open issues and last shipped yesterday. n8n leads on adoption by 124% (209,375 vs 93,365 stars). n8n is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; ragflow is written in Go under Apache-2.0. n8n has attracted 29% as many forks as stars, ragflow 12%. n8n was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (ai), 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
| n8n | ragflow | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 209K | ★ 93K |
| License | Custom / other | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 61K | ⑂ 11K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick n8n if
- You weight community size — 209K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick ragflow if
- You want the ragflow feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and ragflow fits your workflow better
About n8n
n8n – The Platform for AI Agents and Workflow Automation Fair code platform to build and deploy AI agents and workflows. Combine a visual canvas with custom code, run it self hosted or in the cloud, and connect to 1500+ integrations. AI automation you can trust with real work, from prototype to production. Key Capabilities AI Native Automation Platform : Build and operationalize AI workflows and multi step agents using your own data, models, and tools Model Flexibility, No Lock In : Connect to OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, or open source models and switch providers without changing your architecture From Prototype…
About ragflow
Cloud Documentation Roadmap Discord 📕 Table of Contents 💡 What is RAGFlow? 🎮 Get Started 🔥 Latest Updates 🌟 Key Features 🔎 System Architecture 🎬 Self Hosting 🔧 Configurations 🔧 Build a Docker Image 🔨 Launch Service from Source for Development 📚 Documentation 📜 Roadmap 🏄 Community 🙌 Contributing 💡 What is RAGFlow? RAGFlow is a leading open source Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) engine that fuses cutting edge RAG with Agent capabilities to create a superior context layer for LLMs. It offers a streamlined RAG workflow adaptable to enterprises of any scale. Powered by a converged context engine…
read the full ragflow overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is n8n or ragflow more popular?
n8n has 209,375 GitHub stars and ragflow has 93,365. n8n has the larger community by that measure.
Are n8n and ragflow free?
Both are open source. n8n has no licence declared in this registry, and ragflow is licensed under Apache-2.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between n8n and ragflow?
n8n is written in TypeScript and ragflow in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, n8n or ragflow?
Choose n8n if you want the larger community (209,375 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose ragflow if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.