head to head · open source
compose vs waverless
compose has 38,573 GitHub stars, 5,899 forks, 111 open issues and last shipped yesterday. waverless has 634 stars, 68 forks, 2 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. compose leads on adoption by 5,984% (38,573 vs 634 stars). compose is written in Go under Apache-2.0; waverless is written in Go under Apache-2.0. compose has attracted 15% as many forks as stars, waverless 11%. compose was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (go, 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 | waverless | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 39K | ★ 634 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-08-21 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.9K | ⑂ 68 |
| 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 waverless if
- You want the waverless 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 waverless 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 waverless
Waverless High performance Serverless GPU Task Orchestration System 🌐 wavespeed.ai • 📐 Architecture • 📖 User Guide • 🔧 Developer Guide Features 🚀 Pull based Architecture Workers actively pull tasks for better load balancing 🔌 RunPod Compatible Zero code migration from runpod python SDK ☸️ Multi Provider Kubernetes, Novita Serverless, Docker backends 📊 Smart Autoscaling Queue depth, priority, and resource aware scaling 🛡️ Graceful Shutdown Zero task loss during rolling updates Architecture Quick Start API Example Documentation License MIT License WaveSpeed AI — AI image & video generation platform. Try it…
read the full waverless overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is compose or waverless more popular?
compose has 38,573 GitHub stars and waverless has 634. compose has the larger community by that measure.
Are compose and waverless free?
Both are open source. compose is licensed under Apache-2.0 and waverless under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between compose and waverless?
compose is written in Go and waverless 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 waverless?
Choose compose if you want the larger community (38,573 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose waverless if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.