head to head · open source
compose vs rtic
compose has 38,573 GitHub stars, 5,899 forks, 111 open issues and last shipped yesterday. rtic has 2,429 stars, 267 forks, 58 open issues and last shipped yesterday. compose leads on adoption by 1,488% (38,573 vs 2,429 stars). compose is written in Go under Apache-2.0; rtic is written in Rust under Apache-2.0. compose has attracted 15% as many forks as stars, rtic 11%. rtic 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 | rtic | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 39K | ★ 2.4K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.9K | ⑂ 267 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick compose if
- You weight community size — 39K 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 rtic if
- You want the rtic feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and rtic fits your workflow better
About compose
Table of Contents Docker Compose Where to get Docker Compose + Windows and macOS + Linux Quick Start Contributing Legacy Docker Compose Docker Compose is a tool for running multi container applications on Docker defined using the Compose file format. A Compose file is used to define how one or more containers that make up your application are configured. Once you have a Compose file, you can create and start your application with a single command: docker compose up . Note : About Docker Swarm Docker Swarm used to rely on the legacy compose file format but did not adopt the compose specification so is missing…
read the full compose overview →
About rtic
Real Time Interrupt driven Concurrency The hardware accelerated Rust RTOS A concurrency framework for building real time systems. Features Tasks as the unit of concurrency [^1]. Tasks can be event triggered (fired in response to asynchronous stimuli) or spawned by the application on demand. Message passing between tasks. Specifically, messages can be passed to software tasks at spawn time. A timer queue [^2]. Software tasks can be delayed or scheduled to continue running at some time in the future. This feature can be used to implement periodic tasks. Support for prioritization of tasks and, thus, preemptive…
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Frequently asked questions
Is compose or rtic more popular?
compose has 38,573 GitHub stars and rtic has 2,429. compose has the larger community by that measure.
Are compose and rtic free?
Both are open source. compose is licensed under Apache-2.0 and rtic under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between compose and rtic?
compose is written in Go and rtic in Rust. 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 rtic?
Choose compose if you want the larger community (38,573 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose rtic if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.