head to head · open source
Archon vs tork
Archon has 23,823 GitHub stars, 3,520 forks, 321 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. tork has 821 stars, 66 forks, 20 open issues and last shipped 6 days ago. Archon leads on adoption by 2,802% (23,823 vs 821 stars). Archon is written in TypeScript under MIT; tork is written in Go under MIT. Archon has attracted 15% as many forks as stars, tork 8%. Archon was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (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 | tork | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 24K | ★ 821 |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-10-30 |
| 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 tork if
- You want the tork feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and tork fits your workflow better
About Archon
Archon The first open source harness builder for AI coding. Make AI coding deterministic and repeatable. Archon is a workflow engine for AI coding agents. Define your development processes as YAML workflows planning, implementation, validation, code review, PR creation and run them reliably across all your projects. Like what Dockerfiles did for infrastructure and GitHub Actions did for CI/CD Archon does for AI coding workflows. Think n8n, but for software development. Why Archon? When you ask an AI agent to "fix this bug", what happens depends on the model's mood. It might skip planning. It might forget to run…
read the full Archon overview →
About tork
Features • Quick Start • Installation • Architecture • Jobs • Tasks • Configuration • REST API • Web UI • Extend Tork is a highly scalable, general purpose workflow engine. It lets you define jobs consisting of multiple tasks, each running inside its own container. You can run Tork on a single machine (standalone mode) or set it up in a distributed environment with multiple workers. Features REST API – Submit jobs, query status, cancel/restart Horizontally scalable – Add workers to handle more tasks Task isolation – Tasks run in containers for isolation, idempotency, and resource limits Automatic recovery –…
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Frequently asked questions
Is Archon or tork more popular?
Archon has 23,823 GitHub stars and tork has 821. Archon has the larger community by that measure.
Are Archon and tork free?
Both are open source. Archon is licensed under MIT and tork under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Archon and tork?
Archon is written in TypeScript and tork 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, Archon or tork?
Choose Archon if you want the larger community (23,823 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose tork if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.