Kotaemon 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.
| Feature | Kotaemon | RAGFlow |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 92 · Excellent | 100 · Excellent |
| Category | Self-Hosted AI | Self-Hosted AI |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Python | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 4,096 MB | 8,192 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | docker, kubernetes |
| GitHub stars | ★ 25,778 | ★ 91,238 |
| First released | 2024 | 2024 |
| Replaces | NotebookLM | NotebookLM |
What are Kotaemon and RAGFlow?
Kotaemon
Kotaemon is an open-source, customizable RAG application for chatting with documents. It offers a clean interface with multimodal document support, citations, and a complex reasoning pipeline.
- Clean document chat UI
- Citation support
- Multimodal RAG
- Configurable pipelines
RAGFlow
RAGFlow is an open-source retrieval-augmented generation engine built around deep document understanding. It parses complex documents accurately, chunks them intelligently, and provides grounded, citation-backed answers.
- Deep document parsing
- Citation-grounded answers
- Knowledge base management
- Visual chunking
Kotaemon vs RAGFlow: key differences
Both projects are written in Python. Kotaemon is the lighter option, starting around 4,096 MB of RAM against 8,192 MB for RAGFlow. RAGFlow has the considerably larger community, at 91,238 GitHub stars versus 25,778.
Why pick each one
Choose Kotaemon if…
- Clean citation UI
- Multimodal document support
- GraphRAG support included
Watch out for
- Heavy dependency stack
- Configuration can be involved
Choose RAGFlow if…
- Excellent document parsing
- Citation-backed answers
- Broad LLM support
Watch out for
- Heavy resource requirements
- Complex multi-container stack
Frequently asked questions
Is Kotaemon 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 Kotaemon and RAGFlow free and open-source?
Yes. Kotaemon is licensed under Apache-2.0 and RAGFlow under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Kotaemon and RAGFlow with Docker?
Kotaemon: yes. RAGFlow: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Kotaemon or RAGFlow?
Kotaemon has the smaller minimum footprint at 4,096 MB of RAM, compared to about 8,192 MB for RAGFlow. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.