head to head · open source
compose vs agola
compose has 38,573 GitHub stars, 5,899 forks, 111 open issues and last shipped yesterday. agola has 1,630 stars, 122 forks, 71 open issues and last shipped 1.1 years ago. compose leads on adoption by 2,266% (38,573 vs 1,630 stars). compose is written in Go under Apache-2.0; agola is written in Go under Apache-2.0. compose has attracted 15% as many forks as stars, agola 7%. compose 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
| compose | agola | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 39K | ★ 1.6K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2025-09-24 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.9K | ⑂ 122 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick compose if
- You weight community size — 39K 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 agola if
- You want the agola 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 agola fits your workflow better
About compose
Table of Contents Docker Compose Where to get Docker Compose + Windows and macOS + Linux Quick Start Contributing Legacy Docker Compose Docker Compose is a tool for running multi container applications on Docker defined using the Compose file format. A Compose file is used to define how one or more containers that make up your application are configured. Once you have a Compose file, you can create and start your application with a single command: docker compose up . Note : About Docker Swarm Docker Swarm used to rely on the legacy compose file format but did not adopt the compose specification so is missing…
read the full compose overview →
About agola
Agola CI/CD redefined For an introduction to agola you can take a look at this post Try it See the agolademo example Features Easy to install and manage. Scalable and High Available: go from a single instance (single process) deployment to a distributed deployment. Deploy anywhere: Kubernetes, IaaS, bare metal and execute the "tasks" anywhere (currently containers executors like docker or orchestrators and Kubernetes, but easily extensible to future technologies or VMs instead of containers). Support any language, deployment system etc... (just use the right image) Integrate with multiple git providers at the…
read the full agola overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is compose or agola more popular?
compose has 38,573 GitHub stars and agola has 1,630. compose has the larger community by that measure.
Are compose and agola free?
Both are open source. compose is licensed under Apache-2.0 and agola under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between compose and agola?
compose is written in Go and agola 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, compose or agola?
Choose compose if you want the larger community (38,573 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose agola if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.