head to head · open source
ragflow vs CL4R1T4S
ragflow has 93,460 GitHub stars, 11,215 forks, 1,525 open issues and last shipped yesterday. CL4R1T4S has 51,737 stars, 10,551 forks, 127 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. ragflow leads on adoption by 81% (93,460 vs 51,737 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 20%. 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 | ★ 93K | ★ 52K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | — |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-09-22 |
| Forks | ⑂ 11K | ⑂ 11K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick ragflow if
- You weight community size — 93K 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
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 →
About CL4R1T4S
CL4R1T4S AI SYSTEMS TRANSPARENCY AND OBSERVABILITY FOR ALL! Full extracted system prompts, guidelines, and tools from OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, xAI, Perplexity, Cursor, Windsurf, Devin, Manus, Replit, and more – virtually all major AI models + agents! 📌 Why This Exists "In order to trust the output, one must understand the input." AI labs shape how models behave using massive, unseen prompt scaffolds. Because AI is a trusted external intelligence layer for a growing number of humans, these hidden instructions can affect the perceptions and behavior of the public. These prompts define: What AIs can’t say What…
read the full CL4R1T4S overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is ragflow or CL4R1T4S more popular?
ragflow has 93,460 GitHub stars and CL4R1T4S has 51,737. 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 (93,460 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.