head to head · open source
ansible vs kala
ansible has 70,721 GitHub stars, 24,333 forks, 837 open issues and last shipped yesterday. kala has 2,156 stars, 190 forks, 15 open issues and last shipped 10 months ago. ansible leads on adoption by 3,180% (70,721 vs 2,156 stars). ansible is written in Python under GPL-3.0; kala is written in Go under MIT. ansible has attracted 34% as many forks as stars, kala 9%. 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 | kala | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 71K | ★ 2.2K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2025-12-05 |
| Forks | ⑂ 24K | ⑂ 190 |
| 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 kala if
- You want the kala feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and kala 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 kala
Kala is an open source job scheduler written in Go under the MIT license. It sits in the Infrastructure & Operations / Orchestration & Scheduling category and describes itself as a modern service for scheduling jobs. The project ships as a single binary with no external dependencies, exposes a JSON over HTTP API, includes a web UI, and supports persistent storage through several database drivers.
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Frequently asked questions
Is ansible or kala more popular?
ansible has 70,721 GitHub stars and kala has 2,156. ansible has the larger community by that measure.
Are ansible and kala free?
Both are open source. ansible is licensed under GPL-3.0 and kala under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between ansible and kala?
ansible is written in Python and kala 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 kala?
Choose ansible if you want the larger community (70,721 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose kala if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.