head to head · open source
ansible vs agola
ansible has 71,204 GitHub stars, 24,474 forks, 837 open issues and last shipped yesterday. agola has 1,630 stars, 122 forks, 71 open issues and last shipped 1.1 years ago. ansible leads on adoption by 4,268% (71,204 vs 1,630 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 7%. 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 | 2026-11-02 | 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
[ ][copying] Ansible Ansible is a radically simple IT automation system. It handles configuration management, application deployment, cloud provisioning, ad hoc task execution, network automation, and multi node orchestration. Ansible makes complex changes like zero downtime rolling updates with load balancers easy. More information on the Ansible website. Design Principles Have an extremely simple setup process with a minimal learning curve. Manage machines quickly and in parallel. Avoid custom agents and additional open ports, be agentless by leveraging the existing SSH daemon. Describe infrastructure in a…
read the full ansible overview →
About agola
Agola CI/CD redefined For an introduction to agola you can take a look at this post Try it See the agolademo example Features Easy to install and manage. Scalable and High Available: go from a single instance (single process) deployment to a distributed deployment. Deploy anywhere: Kubernetes, IaaS, bare metal and execute the "tasks" anywhere (currently containers executors like docker or orchestrators and Kubernetes, but easily extensible to future technologies or VMs instead of containers). Support any language, deployment system etc... (just use the right image) Integrate with multiple git providers at the…
read the full agola overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is ansible or agola more popular?
ansible has 71,204 GitHub stars and agola has 1,630. 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 (71,204 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.