LlamaIndex vs Haystack
Both are free/open-source alternatives to LangChain. Here's how they stack up — verified facts, no spin.
LlamaIndex
The focused RAG framework — data in, grounded answers out.
LlamaIndex (MIT, ~49k stars) is the framework to pick when your problem is specifically retrieval — getting your documents ingested, indexed, and answered over. Its primitives are built around the data side (loaders, indexes, retrievers, query engines) rather than trying to abstract everything, which keeps it noticeably leaner to reason about than LangChain for RAG builds. The company monetizes hosted parsing/extraction (LlamaCloud); the framework itself stays open and self-sufficient.
Haystack
The production-pipeline veteran — explicit, modular, Apache-2.0.
Haystack (Apache-2.0, by Germany's deepset) is the framework for teams who want explicit, inspectable pipelines rather than magic: you wire components — retrievers, routers, generators, memory — into a graph you can see and test. It predates the LLM boom (it started in extractive search), and that production heritage shows in its stability and its popularity for serious RAG and semantic-search deployments in enterprises.
Side by side
| LlamaIndex | Haystack | |
|---|---|---|
| Sovereignty Score | 90 | 89 |
| Open source | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hostable | Yes | Yes |
| Local-first | Yes | Yes |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Pricing | Free (MIT); optional hosted LlamaCloud for managed parsing/extraction | Free (Apache-2.0); deepset offers a commercial platform on top |
LlamaIndex edges it on the Sovereignty Score, but the right pick depends on the trade-offs below.
LlamaIndex
Strengths
- +Purpose-built for RAG — the data primitives are the product
- +Leaner mental model than LangChain for retrieval apps
- +Huge loader/integration ecosystem for document types
Trade-offs
- −Less suited to general agent orchestration than dedicated tools
- −Fast-moving API surface — pin versions
Haystack
Strengths
- +Explicit pipeline graphs — no hidden control flow
- +Production-grade stability; strong enterprise track record
- +EU-rooted project with a clean open-source license
Trade-offs
- −More upfront wiring than the batteries-included frameworks
- −Smaller ecosystem than LangChain's
More LangChain head-to-heads
Facts verified 2026-07-16. Licenses and pricing change — spotted something out of date? That's a correction we want.