head to head · open source
Bruno vs kpt
Bruno has 47,027 GitHub stars, 2,890 forks, 1,831 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. kpt has 1,894 stars, 265 forks, 324 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Bruno leads on adoption by 2,383% (47,027 vs 1,894 stars). Bruno is written in JavaScript under MIT; kpt is written in Go under Apache-2.0. Bruno has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, kpt 14%. Bruno was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (openapi), 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
| Bruno | kpt | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 47K | ★ 1.9K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.9K | ⑂ 265 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Bruno if
- You weight community size — 47K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick kpt if
- You want the kpt 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 kpt fits your workflow better
About Bruno
Bruno is a lightweight, open source API client and IDE for exploring and testing APIs, built for developers and teams who want their request collections stored as plain text in a folder on their own filesystem rather than in a vendor's cloud.
read the full Bruno overview →
About kpt
kpt is an Apache 2.0, Go based, package centric toolchain that automates the authoring, transformation, validation, and delivery of Kubernetes configuration as data, aimed at platform engineers and infrastructure teams that manage Kubernetes platforms and KRM driven infrastructure at scale.
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Frequently asked questions
Is Bruno or kpt more popular?
Bruno has 47,027 GitHub stars and kpt has 1,894. Bruno has the larger community by that measure.
Are Bruno and kpt free?
Both are open source. Bruno is licensed under MIT and kpt under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Bruno and kpt?
Bruno is written in JavaScript and kpt 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, Bruno or kpt?
Choose Bruno if you want the larger community (47,027 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose kpt if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.