head to head · open source
Archon vs openworkflow
Archon has 23,505 GitHub stars, 3,474 forks, 321 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. openworkflow has 1,324 stars, 66 forks, 12 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Archon leads on adoption by 1,675% (23,505 vs 1,324 stars). Archon is written in TypeScript under MIT; openworkflow is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. Archon has attracted 15% as many forks as stars, openworkflow 5%. openworkflow was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (typescript, workflow-engine), 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
| Archon | openworkflow | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 24K | ★ 1.3K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.5K | ⑂ 66 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Archon if
- You weight community size — 24K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick openworkflow if
- You want the openworkflow feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and openworkflow fits your workflow better
About Archon
Archon is an open source workflow engine for AI coding agents, written in TypeScript and released under the MIT license. It lives in the AI coding ecosystem, alongside tools such as Claude Code, and is distributed through the Bun runtime and the GitHub CLI. The project describes itself as a harness builder: it lets a developer encode a development process as a YAML workflow and then run that workflow reliably across projects. Workflows are stored in a .archon/workflows/ directory and committed to the repository, so the same definition can be invoked from the CLI, a web UI, Slack, Telegram, or GitHub.…
read the full Archon overview →
About openworkflow
OpenWorkflow is an open source TypeScript framework for building durable, resumable workflows on Node.js and Bun, aimed at developers who need long running background work to survive crashes and deploys without operating extra servers.
read the full openworkflow overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Archon or openworkflow more popular?
Archon has 23,505 GitHub stars and openworkflow has 1,324. Archon has the larger community by that measure.
Are Archon and openworkflow free?
Both are open source. Archon is licensed under MIT and openworkflow under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Archon and openworkflow?
Archon is written in TypeScript and openworkflow 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, Archon or openworkflow?
Choose Archon if you want the larger community (23,505 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose openworkflow if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.