head to head · open source
compose vs rancher
compose has 38,175 GitHub stars, 5,817 forks, 111 open issues and last shipped yesterday. rancher has 25,922 stars, 3,222 forks, 3,371 open issues and last shipped yesterday. compose leads on adoption by 47% (38,175 vs 25,922 stars). compose is written in Go under Apache-2.0; rancher is written in Go under Apache-2.0. compose has attracted 15% as many forks as stars, rancher 12%. rancher was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (docker, 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 | rancher | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 38K | ★ 26K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.8K | ⑂ 3.2K |
| 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 rancher if
- You want the rancher 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 rancher 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 rancher
Rancher is an Apache 2.0 licensed, Go based open source container management platform for organizations that deploy containers in production and need to run Kubernetes everywhere while meeting IT requirements and empowering DevOps teams.
read the full rancher overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is compose or rancher more popular?
compose has 38,175 GitHub stars and rancher has 25,922. compose has the larger community by that measure.
Are compose and rancher free?
Both are open source. compose is licensed under Apache-2.0 and rancher under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between compose and rancher?
compose is written in Go and rancher 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 rancher?
Choose compose if you want the larger community (38,175 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose rancher if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.