head to head · open source
compose vs origin
compose has 38,175 GitHub stars, 5,817 forks, 111 open issues and last shipped yesterday. origin has 8,685 stars, 4,804 forks, 319 open issues and last shipped yesterday. compose leads on adoption by 340% (38,175 vs 8,685 stars). compose is written in Go under Apache-2.0; origin is written in Go under Apache-2.0. compose has attracted 15% as many forks as stars, origin 55%. compose was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (go), 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 | origin | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 38K | ★ 8.7K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.8K | ⑂ 4.8K |
| 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 origin if
- You want the origin 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 origin 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 origin
Origin is the conformance test suite for OpenShift, an Apache 2.0 Go repository that maintains the openshift tests binary and the test exclusion rules used to decide which tests run against which cluster configuration, aimed at OpenShift release engineers, platform engineers, and CI maintainers who validate that a cluster is conformant.
read the full origin overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is compose or origin more popular?
compose has 38,175 GitHub stars and origin has 8,685. compose has the larger community by that measure.
Are compose and origin free?
Both are open source. compose is licensed under Apache-2.0 and origin under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between compose and origin?
compose is written in Go and origin 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 origin?
Choose compose if you want the larger community (38,175 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose origin if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.