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Haystack vs LlamaIndex(2026)

Haystack is better for teams that need production-grade reliability. LlamaIndex is the stronger choice if best-in-class for rag. Haystack is open-source (from $0) and LlamaIndex is open-source (from $0).

Full feature breakdown, pricing details, and pros & cons below.

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Haystack logo

Haystack

open-source

Haystack by deepset is an open-source LLM framework for building production-ready search and question-answering pipelines with modular components and enterprise reliability.

Starting at $0

Visit Haystack
LlamaIndex logo

LlamaIndex

open-source

LlamaIndex is a data framework for LLM applications specializing in connecting LLMs to external data sources — with best-in-class RAG pipelines, data connectors, and indexing strategies.

Starting at $0

Visit LlamaIndex

How Do Haystack and LlamaIndex Compare on Features?

FeatureHaystackLlamaIndex
Pricing modelopen-sourceopen-source
Starting price$0$0
Modular pipeline architecture
Document stores
Retrieval pipelines
Prompt builder
Evaluation tools
REST API deployment
Enterprise support
RAG pipelines
100+ data connectors
Multi-modal support
Agents
Query engines
Observability
Python + TypeScript

Haystack Pros and Cons vs LlamaIndex

H

Haystack

+Production-grade reliability
+Modular architecture
+Strong evaluation tools
+Well-suited for search
Smaller community than LangChain
Less agent support
Python only
L

LlamaIndex

+Best-in-class for RAG
+Rich data connectors
+Strong enterprise adoption
+Active development
Steeper learning curve than LangChain
More complex for simple use cases
Smaller community

Should You Use Haystack or LlamaIndex?

Choose Haystack if…

  • Production-grade reliability
  • Modular architecture
  • Strong evaluation tools

Choose LlamaIndex if…

  • Best-in-class for RAG
  • Rich data connectors
  • Strong enterprise adoption

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