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Haystack vs LlamaIndex

A side-by-side comparison of Haystack and LlamaIndex, two Orchestration tools, drawn from Ignaite's continuously-verified listings.

Compared from listings verified as of

Haystack

Orchestration

Open-source Python framework for production RAG and agents.

View Haystack

LlamaIndex

Orchestration

The data framework for LLM apps — RAG, agents, and document workflows.

View LlamaIndex

At a glance

Feature comparison of Haystack and LlamaIndex
AttributeHaystackLlamaIndex
CategoryOrchestrationOrchestration
Pricing (differs)FREEFREEMIUM
License (differs)Open sourceOpen core
Deployment——
Platforms (differs)APIAPI, CLI
Model supportModel-agnosticModel-agnostic
Vendor (differs)deepsetLlamaIndex
Capabilities (differs)
  • Agent framework
  • Tool / function calling
  • RAG pipeline
  • Chat with documents
  • Vector search
  • Agent framework
  • RAG pipeline
  • Vector search
  • Chat with documents
  • Document parsing (structured)
  • Structured extraction

The honest brief

Haystack

More production-oriented and explicitly composable than lighter agent libraries: typed pipelines give direct control over retrieval, routing, and memory.

  • Composable, typed pipeline architecture
  • Model- and vector-store agnostic
  • Strong production tooling
  • Mature docs and integrations
  • Pipeline model has a learning curve
  • Python-only
  • Heavier than minimal agent libraries

LlamaIndex

Retrieval-first where LangChain is orchestration-first — LlamaParse is the go-to for PDFs that defeat normal parsers.

  • Best-in-class RAG primitives
  • LlamaParse for hard documents
  • Python + TypeScript
  • Managed LlamaCloud option
  • Narrower than full orchestration frameworks
  • LlamaCloud parsing is paid
  • API churn between versions

When to pick which

Both cover Agent framework, RAG pipeline, Chat with documents, and Vector search.

Pick Haystack if you need Tool / function calling.

  • Tool / function calling (secondary capability)

Pick LlamaIndex if you need Document parsing (structured) and Structured extraction.

  • Document parsing (structured) (primary capability)
  • Structured extraction (secondary capability)

Haystack leans on Agent framework as a headline capability; LlamaIndex treats it as secondary.

  • Agent framework (primary capability)

They also differ on:

Pricing
FREE · FREEMIUM
License
Open source · Open core
Platforms
API · API, CLI
Haystack detailsLlamaIndex detailsAll Orchestration apps