Docling vs RAGFlow
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted self-hosted ai options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Not the right match-up?
Docling
Parse documents into AI-ready structured formats
VS
RAGFlow
RAG engine with deep document understanding
| Feature | Docling | RAGFlow |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Self-Hosted AI | Self-Hosted AI |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Python | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 4,096 MB | 8,192 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal, source, docker | docker, kubernetes |
| GitHub stars | ★ 64,404 | ★ 87,057 |
| First released | 2024 | 2024 |
| Replaces | Adobe Acrobat | NotebookLM |
Why pick each one
Choose Docling if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 64.4k GitHub stars
- Written in Python
Choose RAGFlow if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Kubernetes-ready with Helm charts available
- Mature project with 87.1k GitHub stars
Frequently asked questions
Is Docling or RAGFlow better?
Neither is universally better. RAGFlow has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Docling and RAGFlow free and open-source?
Yes. Docling is licensed under MIT and RAGFlow under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Docling and RAGFlow with Docker?
Docling: yes. RAGFlow: yes.