head to head · open source

ansible vs gocron

ansible has 71,204 GitHub stars, 24,474 forks, 837 open issues and last shipped yesterday. gocron has 805 stars, 64 forks, 10 open issues and last shipped 25 days ago. ansible leads on adoption by 8,745% (71,204 vs 805 stars). ansible is written in Python under GPL-3.0; gocron is written in Go under MIT. ansible has attracted 34% as many forks as stars, gocron 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.

ansible ★ 71K gocron ★ 805 category Infrastructure & Operations

← all 20902 open source comparisons

Side by side

ansible gocron
GitHub stars ★ 71K ★ 805
License GPL-3.0 MIT
Written in Python Go
Last push 2026-11-02 2026-10-09
Forks ⑂ 24K ⑂ 64
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

full ansible profile →

pick gocron if

  • You want the gocron feature set and don't need the biggest community
  • You prefer the MIT license terms
  • Your stack matches Go
  • You evaluated both and gocron fits your workflow better

full gocron profile →

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 gocron

gocron A lightweight distributed scheduled task management system developed in Go, designed to replace Linux crontab. English · 简体中文 Agent Auto Registration Task Management AI Failure Diagnosis 📖 Documentation Full documentation is available at: document 🚀 Quick Start Installation and deployment guide 🤖 Agent Auto Registration One click task node deployment ⚙️ Configuration Detailed configuration guide 🔌 API Documentation API reference ✨ Features Web Interface : Intuitive task management interface Second level Precision : Supports Crontab expressions with second precision High Availability : Database lock…

read the full gocron overview →

More in Infrastructure & Operations

Related comparisons

More Orchestration & Scheduling projects

Compare either of these against the rest of the Orchestration & Scheduling field.

Frequently asked questions

Is ansible or gocron more popular?

ansible has 71,204 GitHub stars and gocron has 805. ansible has the larger community by that measure.

Are ansible and gocron free?

Both are open source. ansible is licensed under GPL-3.0 and gocron under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.

What is the difference between ansible and gocron?

ansible is written in Python and gocron 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 gocron?

Choose ansible if you want the larger community (71,204 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose gocron if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.