head to head · open source
opa vs bernstein
opa has 12,282 GitHub stars, 1,686 forks, 310 open issues and last shipped today. bernstein has 1,312 stars, 176 forks, 368 open issues and last shipped today. opa leads on adoption by 836% (12,282 vs 1,312 stars). opa is written in Go under Apache-2.0; bernstein is written in Python under Apache-2.0. opa has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, bernstein 13%. opa was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (compliance), 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
| opa | bernstein | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 12K | ★ 1.3K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-29 | 2026-09-29 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.7K | ⑂ 176 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick opa if
- You weight community size — 12K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick bernstein if
- You want the bernstein feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and bernstein fits your workflow better
About opa
Open Policy Agent (OPA) is an open source, general purpose policy engine that enables unified, context aware policy enforcement across the entire stack. It lives in the cloud native ecosystem as a graduated project in the Cloud Native Computing Foundation landscape, and it is written in Go under the Apache 2.0 license. Policy is expressed declaratively in the Rego language, and the project ships alongside a CLI, an HTTP REST API, a Go SDK, and editor tooling rather than as a single binary alone. The repository has been active for roughly eleven years, with 12,234 stars, 1,679 forks, and a last push dated 15 Septe…
About bernstein
Bernstein is an open source, Apache 2.0 governance and orchestration framework for fleets of AI agents, built for teams that want to write their operating rules declaratively, have those rules enforced at runtime, and keep a verifiable, replayable record of what every agent did.
read the full bernstein overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is opa or bernstein more popular?
opa has 12,282 GitHub stars and bernstein has 1,312. opa has the larger community by that measure.
Are opa and bernstein free?
Both are open source. opa is licensed under Apache-2.0 and bernstein under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between opa and bernstein?
opa is written in Go and bernstein in Python. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, opa or bernstein?
Choose opa if you want the larger community (12,282 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose bernstein if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.