# LightRAG vs Pathway

| Attribute | LightRAG | Pathway |
|---|---|---|
| **vioscaleAI score** | 61.7 (53% (medium)) | 57.4 (35% (low)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | 100 | - |
| adoption.dependent_repos | 0 | - |
| adoption.github_stars | 40,136 | - |
| content.faq | `[{"answer":"A lightweight RAG system that processes documents through flexible parsing engines and supports local deployment of embedding, reranking, and storage backends. Includes built-in citation attribution and can work with various open-source LLMs and embedding models. It is indexed under RAG Tools.","source":"https://github.com/pricing","question":"What is LightRAG?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"LightRAG supports the web and a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://github.com/pricing","question":"What platforms does LightRAG support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. LightRAG can be deployed cloud / SaaS, on-premise and self-hosted, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.","source":"https://github.com/pricing","question":"Can LightRAG be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. LightRAG is published under the MIT licence, a permissive licence that generally allows commercial use and modification. Licence terms can change between releases, so verify against the repository for the version you intend to use.","source":"https://github.com/HKUDS/LightRAG","question":"Is LightRAG open source?","confidence":0.95}]` | `[{"answer":"Pathway Live Data Framework is a scalable, open-source data processing platform that enables continuous, real-time data pipeline construction for AI applications. It provides unified stream and batch processing with built-in support for retrieval-augmented generation, agentic systems, and multimodal data handling. It is indexed under RAG Tools.","source":"https://pathway.com/framework/pricing","question":"What is Pathway?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Pathway does not publish its prices. Pricing is quoted on request, across 3 plans (Community, Scale and Enterprise), so the figure depends on your seat count and requirements. We record this as a pricing-transparency signal rather than guessing a number. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://pathway.com/framework/pricing","question":"How much does Pathway cost?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Pathway supports the web and a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://pathway.com/framework/pricing","question":"What platforms does Pathway support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. Pathway can be deployed cloud / SaaS and self-hosted, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.","source":"https://pathway.com/framework/pricing","question":"Can Pathway be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed 21 integrations for Pathway, including Kafka, Apache Spark, Amazon S3, PostgreSQL, Redpanda, Logstash, Slack and Google Pub/Sub, plus 13 more. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.","source":"https://pathway.com/framework/pricing","question":"What does Pathway integrate with?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have independently confirmed GDPR for Pathway. Certifications we do not list are ones we have not been able to verify from public sources, which is not the same as Pathway not holding them. Always confirm compliance directly before you rely on it.","source":"https://pathway.com/framework/blog/regulatory-compliance-automation-live-ai","question":"What security certifications does Pathway have?","confidence":0.7},{"answer":"Pathway is available worldwide. Its primary markets are the United States and the EU. The vendor is headquartered in the United States.","source":"https://pathway.com/framework/pricing","question":"Where is Pathway available?","confidence":0.75}]` |
| deployment.options | `{"on_prem":true,"self_hosted":true}` | `{"cloud":true,"self_hosted":true}` |
| description.long | An open-source RAG system designed for high scalability that uses both knowledge graphs and vector search to retrieve information from large datasets with reduced computational overhead and faster response times. | Pathway Live Data Framework is a scalable, open-source data processing platform that enables continuous, real-time data pipeline construction for AI applications. It provides unified stream and batch processing with built-in support for retrieval-augmented generation, agentic systems, and multimodal data handling. |
| features.capabilities | `{"open_source":true,"multimodal_rag":true,"hybrid_retrieval":true,"citation_attribution":true,"llm_provider_agnostic":true,"reranking_integration":true,"managed_ingestion_pipeline":true,"embedding_provider_agnostic":true,"multi_hop_agentic_retrieval":false}` | `{"open_source":true,"multimodal_rag":true,"hybrid_retrieval":true,"llm_provider_agnostic":true,"managed_ingestion_pipeline":true,"embedding_provider_agnostic":true,"multi_hop_agentic_retrieval":true}` |
| integrations.count | 9 | 300 |
| integrations.list | `[{"name":"PostgreSQL","native":true,"category":"storage"},{"name":"Neo4j","native":true,"category":"storage"},{"name":"MongoDB","native":true,"category":"storage"},{"name":"Milvus","native":true,"category":"storage"},{"name":"Qdrant","native":true,"category":"storage"},{"name":"Redis","native":true,"category":"storage"},{"name":"Memgraph","native":true,"category":"storage"},{"name":"MinerU","native":true},{"name":"Docling","native":true}]` | `[{"name":"Kafka"},{"name":"Apache Spark"},{"name":"Amazon S3"},{"name":"PostgreSQL"},{"name":"Redpanda"},{"name":"Logstash"},{"name":"Slack"},{"name":"Google Pub/Sub"},{"name":"Microsoft Sharepoint"},{"name":"Delta Lake"},{"name":"Apache Iceberg"},{"name":"Google BigQuery"},{"name":"Elasticsearch"},{"name":"QuestDB"},{"name":"MQTT"},{"name":"OpenAI"},{"name":"Ollama"},{"name":"Mistral"},{"name":"LiteLLM"},{"name":"Sentence Transformers"},{"name":"Docling"}]` |
| language.primary | Python | - |
| license.spdx | MIT | - |
| market.availability | - | `{"hqCountry":"US","primaryMarkets":["US","EU"],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` |
| platform.support | `{"cli":true,"mac":true,"web":true,"linux":true}` | `{"cli":true,"web":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"open_source","sourceUrl":"https://github.com/pricing","retrievedAt":"2026-09-14T09:25:31.588Z"}` | `{"type":"hybrid","plans":[{"free":true,"name":"Community","features":["300+ API connectors to data sources","Kafka, S3, PostgreSQL, cloud database connectors","Sub-millisecond REST API endpoints","Python and SQL programming interfaces","Streaming and batch processing","Advanced joins, windows, temporal operations","Rust-based streaming engine","Jupyter notebook support","Vector indexing (HNSW, BM25, hybrid)","LLM extension pack","Unstructured data parsing","Community support"],"description":"Open-source framework under BSL 1.1 license with self-hosted deployment","contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"ram":"8 GB","cores":"4"}},{"free":false,"name":"Scale","features":["All Community features","20+ pre-built application templates","Basic RAG pipelines, document processing, log monitoring","Kafka ETL and social media analytics templates","Business support with 1-business day response","Free pipeline design consultation","Developer assistance program"],"description":"Scalable tier for production deployments with cloud hosting options","contactSales":true,"includedLimits":{"ram":"24 TB","cores":"128","nodes":"40"}},{"free":false,"name":"Enterprise","features":["All Scale features","Advanced connectors (Sharepoint, Delta Lake, Iceberg, BigQuery, Elasticsearch, QuestDB)","MQTT/IoT and custom messaging connectors","High-availability failover","Kubernetes deployment","OpenTelemetry and Grafana monitoring","Real-time geospatial analytics","Visual live dashboards","Historical data snapshots","Industry-specific solutions","Professional services and custom pipelines","Multi-zone SLA","24/7 phone support"],"description":"Fully managed tier with advanced connectors and dedicated support","contactSales":true}],"summary":"Free Community tier; Scale and Enterprise licenses available (specific pricing not published)","currency":"USD","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://pathway.com/framework/pricing","retrievedAt":"2026-08-21T10:57:45.277Z"}` |
| pricing.free_tier | - | yes |
| pricing.model | open_source | freemium |
| pricing.price_level | free | low |
| pricing.transparent | - | no |
| release.cadence_days | 7 | - |
| release.history | `[{"url":"https://github.com/HKUDS/LightRAG/releases/tag/v1.5.7","date":"2026-09-02T07:23:55Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.5.7"},{"url":"https://github.com/HKUDS/LightRAG/releases/tag/v1.5.7rc2","date":"2026-08-19T07:01:48Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.5.7rc2"},{"url":"https://github.com/HKUDS/LightRAG/releases/tag/v1.5.7rc1","date":"2026-08-17T06:47:01Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v1.5.7rc1"},{"url":"https://github.com/HKUDS/LightRAG/releases/tag/v1.5.6","date":"2026-08-06T08:29:47Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.5.6"},{"url":"https://github.com/HKUDS/LightRAG/releases/tag/v1.5.5","date":"2026-07-31T12:07:29Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.5.5"},{"url":"https://github.com/HKUDS/LightRAG/releases/tag/v1.5.5rc1","date":"2026-07-13T19:33:37Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v1.5.5rc1"},{"url":"https://github.com/HKUDS/LightRAG/releases/tag/v1.5.4","date":"2026-06-24T10:24:01Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.5.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/HKUDS/LightRAG/releases/tag/v1.5.3","date":"2026-06-14T06:21:33Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.5.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/HKUDS/LightRAG/releases/tag/v1.5.2","date":"2026-06-11T06:14:51Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.5.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/HKUDS/LightRAG/releases/tag/v1.5.1","date":"2026-06-09T08:32:30Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.5.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/HKUDS/LightRAG/releases/tag/v1.5.0","date":"2026-06-03T01:54:09Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.5.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/HKUDS/LightRAG/releases/tag/v1.5.0rc3","date":"2026-05-26T09:27:02Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v1.5.0rc3"},{"url":"https://github.com/HKUDS/LightRAG/releases/tag/v1.4.16","date":"2026-05-07T19:34:01Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.4.16"},{"url":"https://github.com/HKUDS/LightRAG/releases/tag/v1.4.15","date":"2026-04-19T08:40:25Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.4.15"},{"url":"https://github.com/HKUDS/LightRAG/releases/tag/v1.4.14","date":"2026-04-12T20:43:18Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.4.14"},{"url":"https://github.com/HKUDS/LightRAG/releases/tag/v1.4.13","date":"2026-04-02T17:00:24Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.4.13"},{"url":"https://github.com/HKUDS/LightRAG/releases/tag/v1.4.12","date":"2026-03-27T05:52:31Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.4.12"},{"url":"https://github.com/HKUDS/LightRAG/releases/tag/v1.4.11","date":"2026-03-20T08:41:06Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.4.11"},{"url":"https://github.com/HKUDS/LightRAG/releases/tag/v1.4.11rc2","date":"2026-03-13T06:19:07Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.4.11rc2"},{"url":"https://github.com/HKUDS/LightRAG/releases/tag/v1.4.10","date":"2026-02-27T07:39:59Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.4.10"}]` | - |
| security.disclosure_policy | yes | - |
| security.gdpr | - | yes |
| security.trust_center | https://github.com/HKUDS/LightRAG/security | - |
| security.vulnerabilities | `{"count":10,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=pypi&package_name=lightrag-hku&per_page=100","last_12m":9,"max_severity":"CRITICAL"}` | - |

## Capabilities (RAG Tools)

| Capability | LightRAG | Pathway |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Capabilities** |  |  |
| Hybrid retrieval | ✓ | ✓ |
| Reranking integration | ✓ | - |
| Multi hop agentic retrieval | ✗ | ✓ |
| Embedding provider agnostic | ✓ | ✓ |
| LLM provider agnostic | ✓ | ✓ |
| Built in rag eval metrics | - | - |
| Citation attribution | ✓ | - |
| Multimodal rag | ✓ | ✓ |
| Managed ingestion pipeline | ✓ | ✓ |
| Open source | ✓ | ✓ |

*Source: vioscaleAI. Generated 2026-10-16T02:36:11.418Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*