head to head · open source
ragflow vs PI-Desktop
ragflow has 91,015 GitHub stars, 10,780 forks, 1,525 open issues and last shipped today. PI-Desktop has 4,547 stars, 384 forks, 102 open issues and last shipped today. ragflow leads on adoption by 1,902% (91,015 vs 4,547 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 8%. PI-Desktop 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 | ★ 91K | ★ 4.5K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | LGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-09-20 |
| Forks | ⑂ 11K | ⑂ 384 |
| 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 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
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 PI-Desktop
PI Desktop is a local first desktop workspace for AI coding agents, built on an Electron shell with a Rust host core and the pi Agent Harness, extensible through user installable plugins, and aimed at developers who want agents working inside their own local projects against model providers they configure themselves.
read the full PI-Desktop overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is ragflow or PI-Desktop more popular?
ragflow has 91,015 GitHub stars and PI-Desktop has 4,547. 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 (91,015 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.