head to head · open source
alive-progress vs Autolab
alive-progress has 6,307 GitHub stars, 236 forks, 20 open issues and last shipped 4 months ago. Autolab has 808 stars, 235 forks, 189 open issues and last shipped 17 days ago. alive-progress leads on adoption by 681% (6,307 vs 808 stars). alive-progress is written in Python under MIT; Autolab is written in Ruby under Apache-2.0. alive-progress has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, Autolab 29%. Autolab was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (feedback), 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
| alive-progress | Autolab | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 6.3K | ★ 808 |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | Ruby |
| Last push | 2026-05-24 | 2026-09-01 |
| Forks | ⑂ 236 | ⑂ 235 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick alive-progress if
- You weight community size — 6.3K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Autolab if
- You want the Autolab feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Ruby
- You evaluated both and Autolab fits your workflow better
About alive-progress
alive progress is a Python progress bar library for long running command line processing, aimed at developers who need live throughput, an accurate ETA, and rich terminal animation instead of a static bar.
read the full alive-progress overview →
About Autolab
Autolab is an Apache 2.0 licensed course management service, written in Ruby on Rails, that lets instructors offer autograded programming assignments to students over the web, and it is built for university courses, teaching staff, and institutions that need automated grading of student code at scale.
read the full Autolab overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is alive-progress or Autolab more popular?
alive-progress has 6,307 GitHub stars and Autolab has 808. alive-progress has the larger community by that measure.
Are alive-progress and Autolab free?
Both are open source. alive-progress is licensed under MIT and Autolab under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between alive-progress and Autolab?
alive-progress is written in Python and Autolab in Ruby. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, alive-progress or Autolab?
Choose alive-progress if you want the larger community (6,307 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Autolab if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.