# LangChain

An open-source framework for building LLM applications with tools, memory, and retrieval.

HTML: https://softbests.com/software/langchain
Markdown: https://softbests.com/software/langchain.md
Website: https://python.langchain.com/

- Category: [Agent infrastructure](https://softbests.com/category/agent-tools)
- Pricing: Open source
- Platforms: Web, Self-hosted

## Best for

Developers building production LLM apps who want composable primitives instead of a no-code canvas.

## Why it deserves attention

LangChain provides integrations for models, vector stores, tools, and retrievers, plus chains and agents that compose them in Python or TypeScript. It is MIT-licensed and has 148,000 GitHub stars, with documentation and a large integration ecosystem. The framework is intentionally low-level, so teams still design prompts, evaluation, and observability themselves; LangSmith is the optional paid tracing platform. Its API has changed across versions, so pin versions and keep abstractions thin.

## Can replace

- OpenAI Assistants API

## Related and alternatives

- [LangGraph](https://softbests.com/software/langgraph)
- [Dify](https://softbests.com/software/dify)
- [Dify](https://softbests.com/software/dify)
- [Langflow](https://softbests.com/software/langflow)