head to head · open source
OpenContracts vs sycamore
OpenContracts has 1,484 GitHub stars, 189 forks, 11 open issues and last shipped yesterday. sycamore has 608 stars, 72 forks, 57 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. OpenContracts leads on adoption by 144% (1,484 vs 608 stars). OpenContracts is written in Python under MIT; sycamore is written in Python under Apache-2.0. OpenContracts has attracted 13% as many forks as stars, sycamore 12%. OpenContracts was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (ai, etl, 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
| OpenContracts | sycamore | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 1.5K | ★ 608 |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2026-08-01 |
| Forks | ⑂ 189 | ⑂ 72 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick OpenContracts if
- You weight community size — 1.5K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick sycamore if
- You want the sycamore feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and sycamore fits your workflow better
About OpenContracts
OpenContracts is an MIT licensed, self hosted document intelligence platform that turns a repository of documents into a programmable citation graph, built for builders and hackers who need a document management system for the agentic world as much as a place to store files.
read the full OpenContracts overview →
About sycamore
Sycamore is an open source, AI powered document processing engine for ETL, retrieval augmented generation (RAG), LLM applications, and analytics on unstructured data, aimed at Python data engineers and AI developers who must turn reports, presentations, transcripts, and manuals into clean, chunked, searchable records.
read the full sycamore overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is OpenContracts or sycamore more popular?
OpenContracts has 1,484 GitHub stars and sycamore has 608. OpenContracts has the larger community by that measure.
Are OpenContracts and sycamore free?
Both are open source. OpenContracts is licensed under MIT and sycamore under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between OpenContracts and sycamore?
OpenContracts is written in Python and sycamore 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, OpenContracts or sycamore?
Choose OpenContracts if you want the larger community (1,484 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose sycamore if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.