head to head · open source
compose vs sre
compose has 38,573 GitHub stars, 5,899 forks, 111 open issues and last shipped yesterday. sre has 1,302 stars, 204 forks, 35 open issues and last shipped 7 months ago. compose leads on adoption by 2,863% (38,573 vs 1,302 stars). compose is written in Go under Apache-2.0; sre is written in TypeScript under MIT. compose has attracted 15% as many forks as stars, sre 16%. 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 | sre | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 39K | ★ 1.3K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-04-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.9K | ⑂ 204 |
| 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 sre if
- You want the sre feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and sre 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 sre
SmythOS The Linux of AI Agents Reliable Agent Engineering starts with great, open source infrastructure. This repository contains the Smyth Runtime Environment Kernel (SRE), the Software Development Kit (SDK) and Command Line Interface (CLI) for running agents and creating them with code. If you prefer visual drag & drop agent interfaces instead, check out our open source SmythOS Visual Agent Studio! Great community, support, tutorials. Start in minutes! SmythOS Runtime Environment (SRE) SRE is an open source runtime and SDK for production AI agents. It provides OS level abstractions for AI resources—LLMs…
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Frequently asked questions
Is compose or sre more popular?
compose has 38,573 GitHub stars and sre has 1,302. compose has the larger community by that measure.
Are compose and sre free?
Both are open source. compose is licensed under Apache-2.0 and sre under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between compose and sre?
compose is written in Go and sre 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 sre?
Choose compose if you want the larger community (38,573 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose sre if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.