head to head · open source
ragflow vs liteflow
ragflow has 91,015 GitHub stars, 10,780 forks, 1,525 open issues and last shipped today. liteflow has 3,860 stars, 525 forks, 64 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. ragflow leads on adoption by 2,258% (91,015 vs 3,860 stars). ragflow is written in Go under Apache-2.0; liteflow is written in Java under Apache-2.0. ragflow has attracted 12% as many forks as stars, liteflow 14%. 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-agents), 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 | liteflow | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 91K | ★ 3.9K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Java |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-07-31 |
| Forks | ⑂ 11K | ⑂ 525 |
| 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 liteflow if
- You want the liteflow feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and liteflow 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 liteflow
LiteFlow is an Apache 2.0 licensed, Java based component rule engine that drives complex business orchestration from a small DSL rule file — and, since v2.16.0, treats an AI Agent as a first class citizen that can be orchestrated shoulder to shoulder with ordinary business nodes.
read the full liteflow overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is ragflow or liteflow more popular?
ragflow has 91,015 GitHub stars and liteflow has 3,860. ragflow has the larger community by that measure.
Are ragflow and liteflow free?
Both are open source. ragflow is licensed under Apache-2.0 and liteflow under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between ragflow and liteflow?
ragflow is written in Go and liteflow in Java. 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 liteflow?
Choose ragflow if you want the larger community (91,015 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose liteflow if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.