deer-flowvsrag
Two self-hosted projects, compared on the numbers selfhost.directory tracks live: score, popularity, release cadence and setup effort.
| deer-flow | rag | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 86/100 | 49/100 |
| Rank in category | #5 of 209 in AI Agents | #7 of 7 in RAG |
| GitHub stars | 84 611 | 466 |
| Stars, last 30 days | +1 663 | +0 |
| Stable releases, 12 months | 2 | 3 |
| Latest release | v2.1.0 · 24 Sept 2026 | v0.14.0 · 5 Jun 2026 |
| Setup | Advanced | Moderate |
| Official Docker image | No | Yes |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Main language | Python | Python |
Which one should you pick?
deer-flow scores 86/100 against 49/100 for rag, so it is the safer default.
rag ships more often: 3 stable releases in the past year, against 2 for deer-flow.
If you want the quickest setup, rag is easier to run; deer-flow needs more configuration.
deer-flow is growing faster right now (+1 663 stars in 30 days).
deer-flow details →rag details →