head to head · open source
ragflow vs PI-Desktop
ragflow has 93,460 GitHub stars, 11,215 forks, 1,525 open issues and last shipped yesterday. PI-Desktop has 7,651 stars, 750 forks, 102 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. ragflow leads on adoption by 1,122% (93,460 vs 7,651 stars). ragflow is written in Go under Apache-2.0; PI-Desktop is written in TypeScript under LGPL-3.0. ragflow has attracted 12% as many forks as stars, PI-Desktop 10%. ragflow was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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 | PI-Desktop | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 93K | ★ 7.7K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | LGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-11-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 11K | ⑂ 750 |
| 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 PI-Desktop if
- You want the PI-Desktop feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the LGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and PI-Desktop 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 PI-Desktop
PI Desktop The desktop workspace for AI coding agents. Bring your own model. Open any local project. Let agents work — while you stay in control. Local first · Model agnostic · Extensible · macOS / Windows / Linux Download · Documentation · Screenshots · Build a Plugin · 简体中文 No PI Desktop account. No mandatory relay. No editor lock in. Projects and sessions stay on your machine. Model requests go directly to the provider or endpoint you configure. [!IMPORTANT] PI Desktop is in Early Preview. It is already usable for real coding workflows, while APIs, extension interfaces, and some desktop behaviors are still…
read the full PI-Desktop overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is ragflow or PI-Desktop more popular?
ragflow has 93,460 GitHub stars and PI-Desktop has 7,651. ragflow has the larger community by that measure.
Are ragflow and PI-Desktop free?
Both are open source. ragflow is licensed under Apache-2.0 and PI-Desktop under LGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between ragflow and PI-Desktop?
ragflow is written in Go and PI-Desktop in TypeScript. 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 PI-Desktop?
Choose ragflow if you want the larger community (93,460 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose PI-Desktop if its feature set, stack or LGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.