head to head · open source
ragflow vs PocketFlow
ragflow has 91,015 GitHub stars, 10,780 forks, 1,525 open issues and last shipped today. PocketFlow has 11,185 stars, 1,212 forks, 75 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. ragflow leads on adoption by 714% (91,015 vs 11,185 stars). ragflow is written in Go under Apache-2.0; PocketFlow is written in Python under MIT. ragflow has attracted 12% as many forks as stars, PocketFlow 11%. ragflow was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (agentic-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 | PocketFlow | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 91K | ★ 11K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-07-26 |
| Forks | ⑂ 11K | ⑂ 1.2K |
| 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 PocketFlow if
- You want the PocketFlow feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and PocketFlow 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 PocketFlow
PocketFlow is a 100 line, zero dependency Python framework for building LLM agents, multi agent systems, workflows, and RAG pipelines, aimed at developers who want graph based orchestration without the weight of larger frameworks.
read the full PocketFlow overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is ragflow or PocketFlow more popular?
ragflow has 91,015 GitHub stars and PocketFlow has 11,185. ragflow has the larger community by that measure.
Are ragflow and PocketFlow free?
Both are open source. ragflow is licensed under Apache-2.0 and PocketFlow under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between ragflow and PocketFlow?
ragflow is written in Go and PocketFlow in Python. 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 PocketFlow?
Choose ragflow if you want the larger community (91,015 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose PocketFlow if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.