head to head · open source

ansible vs quirrel

ansible has 71,204 GitHub stars, 24,474 forks, 837 open issues and last shipped yesterday. quirrel has 929 stars, 68 forks, 39 open issues and last shipped yesterday. ansible leads on adoption by 7,565% (71,204 vs 929 stars). ansible is written in Python under GPL-3.0; quirrel is written in TypeScript under MIT. ansible has attracted 34% as many forks as stars, quirrel 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.

ansible ★ 71K quirrel ★ 929 category Infrastructure & Operations

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Side by side

ansible quirrel
GitHub stars ★ 71K ★ 929
License GPL-3.0 MIT
Written in Python TypeScript
Last push 2026-11-02 2026-11-02
Forks ⑂ 24K ⑂ 68
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 quirrel if

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

full quirrel 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 quirrel

Quirrel 🎉 Quirrel joins Netlify. Learn more 🎉 The Task Queueing Solution for Serverless. Landing Page Documentation Quirrel makes job queueing simple as cake. It supports delayed jobs, fanout jobs, recurring jobs and CRON jobs. Quirrel values ... great DX (through tailormade client libraries & the development UI) privacy (through end to end encryption) free software (it's MIT licensed!) easy setup (through hosted offering and easy on prem) Getting Started If you want to learn about Quirrel, check out the tutorial! If you want to integrate Quirrel into an existing application, check out the Getting Started…

read the full quirrel overview →

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Frequently asked questions

Is ansible or quirrel more popular?

ansible has 71,204 GitHub stars and quirrel has 929. ansible has the larger community by that measure.

Are ansible and quirrel free?

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

What is the difference between ansible and quirrel?

ansible is written in Python and quirrel in TypeScript. 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 quirrel?

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