head to head · open source
ActivePieces vs shepherd
ActivePieces has 25,364 GitHub stars, 4,428 forks, 573 open issues and last shipped yesterday. shepherd has 2,504 stars, 219 forks, 12 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. ActivePieces leads on adoption by 913% (25,364 vs 2,504 stars). ActivePieces is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; shepherd is written in Python under MIT. ActivePieces has attracted 17% as many forks as stars, shepherd 9%. ActivePieces was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (workflow-automation), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| ActivePieces | shepherd | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 25K | ★ 2.5K |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-09-09 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.4K | ⑂ 219 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick ActivePieces if
- You weight community size — 25K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick shepherd if
- You want the shepherd feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and shepherd fits your workflow better
About ActivePieces
An open source replacement for Zapier Documentation 🌪️ Create a Piece 🖉 Deploy 🔥 Join Discord 🤯 Welcome to Activepieces All in one AI automation designed to be extensible through a type safe pieces framework written in TypeScript . When you contribute pieces to Activepieces they become automatically available as MCP servers that you can use with LLMs through Claude Desktop, Cursor or Windsurf! 🔥 Why Activepieces is Different: 💖 Loved by Everyone : Intuitive interface and great experience for both technical and non technical users with a quick learning curve. 🌐 Open Ecosystem: All pieces are open source…
read the full ActivePieces overview →
About shepherd
Shepherd: Programmable Meta Agents via Reversible Execution Traces [!IMPORTANT] Shepherd is in early alpha and under active development. APIs may still change between releases. Feedback and issues are very welcome! Install Quickstart Permissions Examples Docs Citation Shepherd is a runtime substrate for agent work that needs inspection, reversibility, and supervision. It records agent runs as durable, inspectable execution traces, with retained workspace outputs that can be reviewed before they are selected, applied, released, or discarded. Platforms. Shepherd requires Python 3.11+ . OS level grant enforcement…
read the full shepherd overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is ActivePieces or shepherd more popular?
ActivePieces has 25,364 GitHub stars and shepherd has 2,504. ActivePieces has the larger community by that measure.
Are ActivePieces and shepherd free?
Both are open source. ActivePieces has no licence declared in this registry, and shepherd is licensed under MIT. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between ActivePieces and shepherd?
ActivePieces is written in TypeScript and shepherd in Python. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, ActivePieces or shepherd?
Choose ActivePieces if you want the larger community (25,364 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose shepherd if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.