head to head · open source
compose vs quirrel
compose has 38,175 GitHub stars, 5,817 forks, 111 open issues and last shipped yesterday. quirrel has 927 stars, 68 forks, 39 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. compose leads on adoption by 4,018% (38,175 vs 927 stars). compose is written in Go under Apache-2.0; quirrel is written in TypeScript under MIT. compose has attracted 15% as many forks as stars, quirrel 7%. compose was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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 | quirrel | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 38K | ★ 927 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-15 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.8K | ⑂ 68 |
| 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 quirrel if
- You want the quirrel feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and quirrel 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 quirrel
Quirrel is an open source task queueing solution built for serverless applications. It is written in TypeScript, distributed under the MIT license, and lives in the JavaScript and TypeScript ecosystem that surrounds serverless platforms such as Next.js deployments. The project describes itself as the task queueing solution for serverless, and its homepage and documentation sit at quirrel.dev and docs.quirrel.dev. The repository has been public for roughly six years, holds 928 stars and 68 forks, and was most recently pushed in September 2026. A notice in the README states that Quirrel joined Netlify, and the orig…
read the full quirrel overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is compose or quirrel more popular?
compose has 38,175 GitHub stars and quirrel has 927. compose has the larger community by that measure.
Are compose and quirrel free?
Both are open source. compose is licensed under Apache-2.0 and quirrel under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between compose and quirrel?
compose is written in Go and quirrel 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 quirrel?
Choose compose if you want the larger community (38,175 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose quirrel if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.