# Kotaemon vs LightRAG | Attribute | Kotaemon | LightRAG | |---|---|---| | **Vioscale score** | 50.9 (23% (low)) | 64.2 (16% (low)) | | activity.commits_last_30d | 0 | 100 | | adoption.dependent_repos | - | 0 | | adoption.github_stars | 25,715 | 39,203 | | deployment.options | `{"self_hosted":true}` | `{"cloud":true,"on_prem":true,"self_hosted":true}` | | description.long | A tool that enables users to interact with their documents through AI-powered retrieval and generation. Built for both individual users seeking answers from documents and developers building custom retrieval-augmented generation systems. | 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. | | features.capabilities | `{"open_source":true,"multimodal_rag":true,"hybrid_retrieval":true,"citation_attribution":true,"llm_provider_agnostic":true,"reranking_integration":true,"embedding_provider_agnostic":true,"multi_hop_agentic_retrieval":true}` | `{"open_source":true,"multimodal_rag":true,"citation_attribution":true,"llm_provider_agnostic":true,"reranking_integration":true,"managed_ingestion_pipeline":true,"embedding_provider_agnostic":true}` | | integrations.count | 8 | - | | integrations.list | `[{"name":"OpenAI"},{"name":"AzureOpenAI"},{"name":"Cohere"},{"name":"Ollama"},{"name":"Groq"},{"name":"VoyageAI"},{"name":"Docling"},{"name":"Gradio"}]` | - | | language.primary | Python | Python | | license.spdx | Apache-2.0 | MIT | | platform.support | `{"cli":true,"mac":true,"web":true,"linux":true,"windows":true}` | `{"cli":true,"web":true}` | | pricing.model | - | commercial | | release.cadence_days | 5 | 7 | | release.history | `[{"url":"https://github.com/Cinnamon/kotaemon/releases/tag/v0.12.0","date":"2026-05-31T04:45:39Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.12.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/Cinnamon/kotaemon/releases/tag/v0.11.3","date":"2026-03-28T16:30:04Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.11.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/Cinnamon/kotaemon/releases/tag/v0.11.2","date":"2026-03-04T10:17:17Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.11.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/Cinnamon/kotaemon/releases/tag/v0.11.1","date":"2026-02-27T09:47:23Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.11.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/Cinnamon/kotaemon/releases/tag/v0.11.0","date":"2025-07-04T11:34:28Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.11.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/Cinnamon/kotaemon/releases/tag/v0.10.6","date":"2025-04-01T04:32:04Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.10.6"},{"url":"https://github.com/Cinnamon/kotaemon/releases/tag/v0.10.4","date":"2025-03-31T14:53:25Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.10.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/Cinnamon/kotaemon/releases/tag/v0.10.3","date":"2025-02-14T14:37:22Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.10.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/Cinnamon/kotaemon/releases/tag/v0.10.2","date":"2025-02-05T06:45:30Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.10.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/Cinnamon/kotaemon/releases/tag/v0.10.1","date":"2025-02-03T01:10:32Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.10.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/Cinnamon/kotaemon/releases/tag/v0.10.0","date":"2025-02-02T08:20:13Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.10.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/Cinnamon/kotaemon/releases/tag/v0.9.11","date":"2024-12-24T02:45:38Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.9.11"},{"url":"https://github.com/Cinnamon/kotaemon/releases/tag/v0.9.10","date":"2024-12-23T02:28:43Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.9.10"},{"url":"https://github.com/Cinnamon/kotaemon/releases/tag/v0.9.9","date":"2024-12-18T13:28:21Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.9.9"},{"url":"https://github.com/Cinnamon/kotaemon/releases/tag/v0.9.8","date":"2024-12-17T10:34:23Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.9.8"},{"url":"https://github.com/Cinnamon/kotaemon/releases/tag/v0.9.6","date":"2024-12-15T16:14:21Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.9.6"},{"url":"https://github.com/Cinnamon/kotaemon/releases/tag/v0.9.5","date":"2024-12-07T02:19:44Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.9.5"},{"url":"https://github.com/Cinnamon/kotaemon/releases/tag/v0.9.4","date":"2024-12-05T12:56:31Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.9.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/Cinnamon/kotaemon/releases/tag/v0.9.3","date":"2024-12-04T04:10:18Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.9.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/Cinnamon/kotaemon/releases/tag/v0.9.2","date":"2024-11-28T14:13:19Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.9.2"}]` | `[{"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"},{"url":"https://github.com/HKUDS/LightRAG/releases/tag/v1.4.9.11","date":"2026-01-15T18:27:15Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.4.9.11"}]` | | security.vulnerabilities | - | `{"count":5,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=pypi&package_name=lightrag-hku&per_page=100","last_12m":4,"max_severity":"CRITICAL"}` | ## Capabilities (RAG Tools) | Capability | Kotaemon | LightRAG | |---|:--:|:--:| | **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: Vioscale. Generated 2026-09-01T16:51:06.631Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*