head to head · open source
compose vs optio
compose has 38,178 GitHub stars, 5,818 forks, 111 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. optio has 1,053 stars, 122 forks, 7 open issues and last shipped yesterday. compose leads on adoption by 3,526% (38,178 vs 1,053 stars). compose is written in Go under Apache-2.0; optio is written in TypeScript under MIT. compose has attracted 15% as many forks as stars, optio 12%. optio was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (orchestration), 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 | optio | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 38K | ★ 1.1K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.8K | ⑂ 122 |
| 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 optio if
- You want the optio feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and optio 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 optio
Optio is a self hosted, MIT licensed workflow orchestration platform that drives AI coding agents from ticket to merged pull request inside your own Kubernetes cluster, and it is built for engineering teams that want agent automation without handing code, secrets, or logs to a hosted vendor.
read the full optio overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is compose or optio more popular?
compose has 38,178 GitHub stars and optio has 1,053. compose has the larger community by that measure.
Are compose and optio free?
Both are open source. compose is licensed under Apache-2.0 and optio under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between compose and optio?
compose is written in Go and optio in TypeScript. 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 optio?
Choose compose if you want the larger community (38,178 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose optio if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.