head to head · open source
ansible vs sre
ansible has 71,204 GitHub stars, 24,474 forks, 837 open issues and last shipped yesterday. sre has 1,302 stars, 204 forks, 35 open issues and last shipped 7 months ago. ansible leads on adoption by 5,369% (71,204 vs 1,302 stars). ansible is written in Python under GPL-3.0; sre is written in TypeScript under MIT. ansible has attracted 34% as many forks as stars, sre 16%. 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 | sre | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 71K | ★ 1.3K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Python | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-04-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 24K | ⑂ 204 |
| 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 sre if
- You want the sre feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and sre fits your workflow better
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 sre
SmythOS The Linux of AI Agents Reliable Agent Engineering starts with great, open source infrastructure. This repository contains the Smyth Runtime Environment Kernel (SRE), the Software Development Kit (SDK) and Command Line Interface (CLI) for running agents and creating them with code. If you prefer visual drag & drop agent interfaces instead, check out our open source SmythOS Visual Agent Studio! Great community, support, tutorials. Start in minutes! SmythOS Runtime Environment (SRE) SRE is an open source runtime and SDK for production AI agents. It provides OS level abstractions for AI resources—LLMs…
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Frequently asked questions
Is ansible or sre more popular?
ansible has 71,204 GitHub stars and sre has 1,302. ansible has the larger community by that measure.
Are ansible and sre free?
Both are open source. ansible is licensed under GPL-3.0 and sre under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between ansible and sre?
ansible is written in Python and sre 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 sre?
Choose ansible if you want the larger community (71,204 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose sre if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.