head to head · open source
ansible vs Bacalhau
ansible has 70,721 GitHub stars, 24,333 forks, 837 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Bacalhau has 871 stars, 102 forks, 27 open issues and last shipped 6 days ago. ansible leads on adoption by 8,020% (70,721 vs 871 stars). ansible is written in Python under GPL-3.0; Bacalhau is written in Go under Apache-2.0. ansible has attracted 34% as many forks as stars, Bacalhau 12%. 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 | Bacalhau | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 71K | ★ 871 |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-13 |
| Forks | ⑂ 24K | ⑂ 102 |
| 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 Bacalhau if
- You want the Bacalhau 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 Bacalhau 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 Bacalhau
Bacalhau is an open source, Apache 2.0 licensed distributed compute orchestrator written in Go that brings computation to the data rather than moving data to computation, built for data engineers, data scientists, bioinformatics teams and infrastructure operators who run batch, edge and cross organizational workloads at petabyte scale.
read the full Bacalhau overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is ansible or Bacalhau more popular?
ansible has 70,721 GitHub stars and Bacalhau has 871. ansible has the larger community by that measure.
Are ansible and Bacalhau free?
Both are open source. ansible is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Bacalhau under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between ansible and Bacalhau?
ansible is written in Python and Bacalhau 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 Bacalhau?
Choose ansible if you want the larger community (70,721 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Bacalhau if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.