head to head · open source
compose vs process-compose
compose has 38,178 GitHub stars, 5,818 forks, 111 open issues and last shipped yesterday. process-compose has 2,779 stars, 149 forks, 26 open issues and last shipped 11 days ago. compose leads on adoption by 1,274% (38,178 vs 2,779 stars). compose is written in Go under Apache-2.0; process-compose is written in Go under Apache-2.0. compose has attracted 15% as many forks as stars, process-compose 5%. compose was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 4 topic tags (docker, go, golang, 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 | process-compose | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 38K | ★ 2.8K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-07 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.8K | ⑂ 149 |
| 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 process-compose if
- You want the process-compose 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 process-compose 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 process-compose
Process Compose Process Compose is a simple and flexible scheduler and orchestrator to manage non containerized applications. Why? Because sometimes you just don't want to deal with docker files, volume definitions, networks and docker registries. Since it's written in Go, Process Compose is a single binary file and has no other dependencies. Once installed, you just need to describe your workflow using a simple YAML schema in a file called process compose.yaml : And start it by running process compose from your terminal. Check the Documentation for more advanced use cases. Features Processes execution (in parall…
read the full process-compose overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is compose or process-compose more popular?
compose has 38,178 GitHub stars and process-compose has 2,779. compose has the larger community by that measure.
Are compose and process-compose free?
Both are open source. compose is licensed under Apache-2.0 and process-compose under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between compose and process-compose?
compose is written in Go and process-compose 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 process-compose?
Choose compose if you want the larger community (38,178 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose process-compose if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.