head to head · open source
compose vs sre
compose has 38,178 GitHub stars, 5,818 forks, 111 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. sre has 1,293 stars, 203 forks, 35 open issues and last shipped 6 months ago. compose leads on adoption by 2,853% (38,178 vs 1,293 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. The two share 1 topic tag (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 | sre | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 38K | ★ 1.3K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-04-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.8K | ⑂ 203 |
| 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 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
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 sre
The SmythOS Runtime Environment (SRE) is an open source, cloud native runtime, SDK, and command line interface that developers use to build, run, and manage agentic AI across local, cloud, and edge environments.
More in Infrastructure & Operations
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Frequently asked questions
Is compose or sre more popular?
compose has 38,178 GitHub stars and sre has 1,293. 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 (38,178 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose sre if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.