head to head · open source
ragflow vs CL4R1T4S
ragflow has 91,015 GitHub stars, 10,780 forks, 1,525 open issues and last shipped today. CL4R1T4S has 50,059 stars, 10,280 forks, 127 open issues and last shipped 10 days ago. ragflow leads on adoption by 82% (91,015 vs 50,059 stars). ragflow is written in Go under Apache-2.0; CL4R1T4S is written in various languages under AGPL-3.0. ragflow has attracted 12% as many forks as stars, CL4R1T4S 21%. ragflow 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
| ragflow | CL4R1T4S | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 91K | ★ 50K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | — |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-09-10 |
| Forks | ⑂ 11K | ⑂ 10K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick ragflow if
- You weight community size — 91K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick CL4R1T4S if
- You want the CL4R1T4S feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- You evaluated both and CL4R1T4S fits your workflow better
About ragflow
RAGFlow is an open source Retrieval Augmented Generation engine that fuses RAG with agent capabilities into a context layer for large language models, built for developers and teams that need to turn complex, unstructured documents into production AI systems.
read the full ragflow overview →
About CL4R1T4S
CL4R1T4S is an AGPL 3.0 repository of full extracted system prompts, guidelines and tools from the major AI models and agents — ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok, Perplexity, Cursor, Lovable, Replit and more — for anyone who wants to know what instructions sit behind the AI systems they use.
read the full CL4R1T4S overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is ragflow or CL4R1T4S more popular?
ragflow has 91,015 GitHub stars and CL4R1T4S has 50,059. ragflow has the larger community by that measure.
Are ragflow and CL4R1T4S free?
Both are open source. ragflow is licensed under Apache-2.0 and CL4R1T4S under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between ragflow and CL4R1T4S?
ragflow is written in Go and CL4R1T4S in various languages. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, ragflow or CL4R1T4S?
Choose ragflow if you want the larger community (91,015 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose CL4R1T4S if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.