Flowise vs Langflow
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted self-hosted ai options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Flowise
Archived
Drag-and-drop builder for LLM apps and AI agents
VS
Langflow
Visual framework for building AI agents and RAG pipelines
| Feature | Flowise | Langflow |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 15 · At risk | 100 · Excellent |
| Status | Archived | Actively maintained |
| Category | Self-Hosted AI | Self-Hosted AI |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Language | TypeScript | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 2,048 MB | 2,048 MB |
| Deployment | docker, kubernetes, bare-metal | docker, kubernetes, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 55,475 | ★ 155,194 |
| First released | 2023 | 2023 |
| Replaces | Vertex AI Agent Builder | Vertex AI Agent Builder |
What are Flowise and Langflow?
Flowise
Flowise is a low-code tool for building customized LLM applications and AI agents using a visual flow editor. It connects models, vector stores, and tools into chatbots and workflows that can be deployed as APIs.
- Visual LLM flow builder
- RAG and agent components
- Deployable as API or widget
- Many integrations
Langflow
Langflow is a low-code visual tool for prototyping and deploying AI applications powered by LLMs. It provides drag-and-drop components for models, retrieval, and agents, and exposes flows as APIs.
- Visual flow editor
- Agent and RAG components
- Python extensibility
- API deployment
Flowise vs Langflow: key differences
The biggest difference is maintenance: Flowise's repository is archived and no longer developed, while Langflow is actively maintained. Flowise is written in TypeScript, while Langflow is built with Python. Licensing differs — Apache-2.0 for Flowise versus MIT for Langflow. Langflow has the considerably larger community, at 155,194 GitHub stars versus 55,475.
Why pick each one
Choose Flowise if…
- Visual flow editor
- Deploys flows as APIs
- Many integrations included
Watch out for
- Upstream development stopped
- Complex flows get unwieldy
Choose Langflow if…
- Intuitive drag-and-drop editor
- Flows exposed as APIs
- Large component library
Watch out for
- Heavy Python dependency stack
- Frequent breaking changes
Frequently asked questions
Is Flowise or Langflow better?
Neither is universally better. Langflow has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Flowise and Langflow free and open-source?
Yes. Flowise is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Langflow under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Flowise and Langflow with Docker?
Flowise: yes. Langflow: yes.