head to head · open source
Appwrite vs Harness
Appwrite has 57,854 GitHub stars, 5,830 forks, 1,008 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Harness has 38,798 stars, 3,451 forks, 106 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Appwrite leads on adoption by 49% (57,854 vs 38,798 stars). Appwrite is written in TypeScript under BSD-3-Clause; Harness is written in Go under Apache-2.0. Appwrite has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, Harness 9%. Appwrite was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (docker), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
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
| Appwrite | Harness | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 58K | ★ 39K |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.8K | ⑂ 3.5K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Appwrite if
- You weight community size — 58K stars and counting
- You want the BSD-3-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Harness if
- You want the Harness 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 Harness fits your workflow better
About Appwrite
Appwrite Appwrite is an open source, all in one development platform. Use built in backend infrastructure and web hosting, all from a single place. English 简体中文 Appwrite is an open source development platform for building web, mobile, and AI applications. It brings together backend infrastructure and web hosting in one place, so teams can build, ship, and scale without stitching together a fragmented stack. Appwrite is available as a managed cloud platform and can also be self hosted on infrastructure you control. With Appwrite, you can add authentication, databases, storage, functions, messaging, realtime…
read the full Appwrite overview →
About Harness
Harness Harness Open Source is an open source development platform packed with the power of code hosting, automated DevOps pipelines, hosted development environments (Gitspaces), and artifact registries. Overview Harness Open source is an open source development platform packed with the power of code hosting, automated DevOps pipelines, Gitspaces, and artifact registries. Running Harness locally The latest publicly released docker image can be found on harness/harness. To install Harness yourself, simply run the command below. Once the container is up, you can visit in your browser. The Harness image uses a…
read the full Harness overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Appwrite or Harness more popular?
Appwrite has 57,854 GitHub stars and Harness has 38,798. Appwrite has the larger community by that measure.
Are Appwrite and Harness free?
Both are open source. Appwrite is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and Harness under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Appwrite and Harness?
Appwrite is written in TypeScript and Harness 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, Appwrite or Harness?
Choose Appwrite if you want the larger community (57,854 stars) or its BSD-3-Clause licence terms. Choose Harness if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.