head to head · open source
compose vs swarmclaw
compose has 38,178 GitHub stars, 5,818 forks, 111 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. swarmclaw has 673 stars, 137 forks, 18 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. compose leads on adoption by 5,573% (38,178 vs 673 stars). compose is written in Go under Apache-2.0; swarmclaw is written in TypeScript under MIT. compose has attracted 15% as many forks as stars, swarmclaw 20%. 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 | swarmclaw | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 38K | ★ 673 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-06-30 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.8K | ⑂ 137 |
| 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 swarmclaw if
- You want the swarmclaw feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and swarmclaw 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 swarmclaw
SwarmClaw is an open source, self hosted AI agent runtime and multi agent framework for autonomous agent swarms, written in TypeScript under the MIT licence for developers and operators who want to run AI agents and agent orchestration on their own infrastructure.
read the full swarmclaw overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is compose or swarmclaw more popular?
compose has 38,178 GitHub stars and swarmclaw has 673. compose has the larger community by that measure.
Are compose and swarmclaw free?
Both are open source. compose is licensed under Apache-2.0 and swarmclaw under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between compose and swarmclaw?
compose is written in Go and swarmclaw 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 swarmclaw?
Choose compose if you want the larger community (38,178 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose swarmclaw if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.