head to head · open source
ansible vs agola
ansible has 70,721 GitHub stars, 24,333 forks, 837 open issues and last shipped yesterday. agola has 1,623 stars, 122 forks, 71 open issues and last shipped 12 months ago. ansible leads on adoption by 4,257% (70,721 vs 1,623 stars). ansible is written in Python under GPL-3.0; agola is written in Go under Apache-2.0. ansible has attracted 34% as many forks as stars, agola 8%. ansible was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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
| ansible | agola | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 71K | ★ 1.6K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2025-09-24 |
| Forks | ⑂ 24K | ⑂ 122 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick ansible if
- You weight community size — 71K stars and counting
- You want the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick agola if
- You want the agola feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and agola fits your workflow better
About ansible
Ansible is a radically simple, agentless IT automation platform, written in Python and licensed under GPL 3.0, that handles configuration management, application deployment, cloud provisioning, ad hoc task execution, network automation, and multi node orchestration for operators, developers, and network and cloud teams who manage machines over plain SSH.
read the full ansible overview →
About agola
Agola is an open source CI/CD platform written in Go and released under Apache 2.0. It lives in the DevOps ecosystem, where teams need continuous integration, delivery, and deployment pipelines for Git repositories and containerized execution environments.
read the full agola overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is ansible or agola more popular?
ansible has 70,721 GitHub stars and agola has 1,623. ansible has the larger community by that measure.
Are ansible and agola free?
Both are open source. ansible is licensed under GPL-3.0 and agola under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between ansible and agola?
ansible is written in Python and agola in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, ansible or agola?
Choose ansible if you want the larger community (70,721 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose agola if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.