Haystack

license

Apache-2.0(core)

commercial

Haystack-Enterprise

source

public

core features withheld

yes — deepset names the free tier a Community Edition and sells Haystack Enterprise Starter with a private template/Helm repo plus early access to security features not yet in OSS

Haystack's Apache-2.0 repository contains the whole framework with no enterprise directory, but deepset also sells Haystack Enterprise Starter, a separate private repository of curated pipeline templates, deployment guides and early access to security features not yet released to the open-source version. That withheld material is code the public source does not yet contain, not just a hosted version of it, which keeps Haystack at open core rather than fully open source.

• https://github.com/deepset-ai/haystack recorded 2026-06-17

  Apache-2.0, ~25.6k stars, Haystack Enterprise tiers

• https://haystack.deepset.ai/blog/announcing-haystack-enterprise recorded 2026-09-29

  The announcement lists "Curated pipeline templates for faster developement" and "Early access to enterprise-grade features" for Haystack Enterprise Starter, and says Haystack "will always remain as an open source framework".

• https://raw.githubusercontent.com/deepset-ai/haystack/main/LICENSE recorded 2026-09-29

  The LICENSE file served from the public repository is the Apache License, Version 2.0 text, headed "Apache License" and "TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR USE, REPRODUCTION, AND DISTRIBUTION"; no other license file was fetched.

• https://www.deepset.ai/blog/introducing-haystack-enterprise recorded 2026-09-29

  deepset frames a free tier as "Haystack OSS (Community Edition):" that is "100% open source, self-supported" and a paid Enterprise Starter with "Priority updates and early access to select features".

Adoption is measured by PyPI downloads of haystack-ai, the current 2.x package, over the trailing month. That volume sits close to the edge between two readings and could move either way with the next check.

• https://pypistats.org/api/packages/haystack-ai/recent recorded 2026-08-12

  933,408 downloads in the trailing 30 days for haystack-ai

Most mature combined RAG + orchestration feature set among the peers. The repo publishes modular pipelines and agent workflows with explicit control over retrieval, routing, memory and generation, covering RAG, multimodal applications, semantic search, question answering and autonomous agents, and adds ready-made agents through Agent Pack and progressive skill discovery through SkillToolset.

• https://github.com/deepset-ai/haystack recorded 2026-08-13

  modular pipelines and agent workflows with explicit control over retrieval, routing, memory and generation; RAG, multimodal, semantic search, question answering and autonomous agents; Agent Pack ready-made agents and SkillToolset progressive skill discovery

• https://raw.githubusercontent.com/deepset-ai/haystack/main/README.md recorded 2026-09-29

  The README describes "modular pipelines and agent workflows with explicit control over retrieval, routing, memory, and generation" and ready-made agents from "Agent Pack" plus progressive skill discovery via "SkillToolset".