head to head · open source
ansible vs origin
ansible has 70,721 GitHub stars, 24,333 forks, 837 open issues and last shipped yesterday. origin has 8,685 stars, 4,804 forks, 319 open issues and last shipped yesterday. ansible leads on adoption by 714% (70,721 vs 8,685 stars). ansible is written in Python under GPL-3.0; origin is written in Go under Apache-2.0. ansible has attracted 34% as many forks as stars, origin 55%. 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 | origin | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 71K | ★ 8.7K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 24K | ⑂ 4.8K |
| 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 origin if
- You want the origin 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 origin 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 origin
Origin is the conformance test suite for OpenShift, an Apache 2.0 Go repository that maintains the openshift tests binary and the test exclusion rules used to decide which tests run against which cluster configuration, aimed at OpenShift release engineers, platform engineers, and CI maintainers who validate that a cluster is conformant.
read the full origin overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is ansible or origin more popular?
ansible has 70,721 GitHub stars and origin has 8,685. ansible has the larger community by that measure.
Are ansible and origin free?
Both are open source. ansible is licensed under GPL-3.0 and origin under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between ansible and origin?
ansible is written in Python and origin 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 origin?
Choose ansible if you want the larger community (70,721 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose origin if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.