LangChain vs LlamaIndex
A side-by-side look at pricing, capabilities, pros, cons, and our editorial scores.
LangChain RAG | LlamaIndex RAG | |
|---|---|---|
| Tagline | The broad LLM application framework — chains, agents, retrievers. | Data framework for connecting LLMs to your data. |
| Category | RAG | RAG |
| Pricing | Freemium· Free open-source; LangSmith paid | Freemium· Free open-source; LlamaCloud paid |
| Model | BYO (any major LLM) | BYO (Claude / GPT / open) |
| Editorial score | 8.3 / 10 | 8.7 / 10 |
| Use cases | general LLM appsRAGagents | RAGdata ingestionindexing |
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| Website | www.langchain.com | www.llamaindex.ai |
Pick LangChain if
- ✅ Massive integration surface
- ✅ Familiar to most LLM engineers
- ✅ Pairs well with LangSmith for eval
- ✅ TypeScript + Python
Pick LlamaIndex if
- ✅ Focused on retrieval (not general agent stuff)
- ✅ Many ingestion connectors
- ✅ Strong production patterns
- ✅ LlamaCloud for managed ingestion