head to head · open source
compose vs erda
compose has 38,175 GitHub stars, 5,817 forks, 111 open issues and last shipped yesterday. erda has 2,755 stars, 382 forks, 2 open issues and last shipped 9 days ago. compose leads on adoption by 1,286% (38,175 vs 2,755 stars). compose is written in Go under Apache-2.0; erda is written in Go under Apache-2.0. compose has attracted 15% as many forks as stars, erda 14%. compose was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (docker, go, golang), 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 | erda | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 38K | ★ 2.8K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-09 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.8K | ⑂ 382 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick compose if
- You weight community size — 38K 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 erda if
- You want the erda 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 erda fits your workflow better
About compose
Docker Compose is an Apache 2.0 licensed Go tool that defines and runs multi container applications on Docker from a single Compose file, aimed at developers and operators who need several containers to start together as one isolated application.
read the full compose overview →
About erda
Erda is an open source, enterprise grade cloud native application platform written in Go and licensed under Apache 2.0. It lives in the Kubernetes ecosystem and is organized as a set of repositories that provide a backend, a React user portal, protocol definitions, infrastructure components, pipeline actions, and addons. The project was created by Terminus and aims to support the development of microservice applications through an application centric model.
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Frequently asked questions
Is compose or erda more popular?
compose has 38,175 GitHub stars and erda has 2,755. compose has the larger community by that measure.
Are compose and erda free?
Both are open source. compose is licensed under Apache-2.0 and erda under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between compose and erda?
compose is written in Go and erda 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 erda?
Choose compose if you want the larger community (38,175 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose erda if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.