head to head · open source
ansible vs workflow-core
ansible has 71,204 GitHub stars, 24,474 forks, 837 open issues and last shipped yesterday. workflow-core has 5,939 stars, 1,261 forks, 133 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. ansible leads on adoption by 1,099% (71,204 vs 5,939 stars). ansible is written in Python under GPL-3.0; workflow-core is written in C# under MIT. ansible has attracted 34% as many forks as stars, workflow-core 21%. 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 | workflow-core | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 71K | ★ 5.9K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Python | C# |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-30 |
| Forks | ⑂ 24K | ⑂ 1.3K |
| 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 workflow-core if
- You want the workflow-core feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches C#
- You evaluated both and workflow-core 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 workflow-core
Workflow Core Workflow Core is a light weight embeddable workflow engine targeting .NET Standard. Think: long running processes with multiple tasks that need to track state. It supports pluggable persistence and concurrency providers to allow for multi node clusters. Announcements New related project: Conductor Conductor is a stand alone workflow server as opposed to a library that uses Workflow Core internally. It exposes an API that allows you to store workflow definitions, track running workflows, manage events and define custom steps and scripts for usage in your workflows. Documentation See Tutorial here…
read the full workflow-core overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is ansible or workflow-core more popular?
ansible has 71,204 GitHub stars and workflow-core has 5,939. ansible has the larger community by that measure.
Are ansible and workflow-core free?
Both are open source. ansible is licensed under GPL-3.0 and workflow-core under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between ansible and workflow-core?
ansible is written in Python and workflow-core in C#. 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 workflow-core?
Choose ansible if you want the larger community (71,204 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose workflow-core if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.