head to head · open source
compose vs workflow-core
compose has 38,573 GitHub stars, 5,899 forks, 111 open issues and last shipped yesterday. workflow-core has 5,939 stars, 1,261 forks, 133 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. compose leads on adoption by 549% (38,573 vs 5,939 stars). compose is written in Go under Apache-2.0; workflow-core is written in C# under MIT. compose has attracted 15% as many forks as stars, workflow-core 21%. 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 | workflow-core | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 39K | ★ 5.9K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | C# |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-30 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.9K | ⑂ 1.3K |
| 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 workflow-core if
- You want the workflow-core feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches C#
- You evaluated both and workflow-core 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 workflow-core
Workflow Core Workflow Core is a light weight embeddable workflow engine targeting .NET Standard. Think: long running processes with multiple tasks that need to track state. It supports pluggable persistence and concurrency providers to allow for multi node clusters. Announcements New related project: Conductor Conductor is a stand alone workflow server as opposed to a library that uses Workflow Core internally. It exposes an API that allows you to store workflow definitions, track running workflows, manage events and define custom steps and scripts for usage in your workflows. Documentation See Tutorial here…
read the full workflow-core overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is compose or workflow-core more popular?
compose has 38,573 GitHub stars and workflow-core has 5,939. compose has the larger community by that measure.
Are compose and workflow-core free?
Both are open source. compose is licensed under Apache-2.0 and workflow-core under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between compose and workflow-core?
compose is written in Go and workflow-core in C#. 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 workflow-core?
Choose compose if you want the larger community (38,573 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose workflow-core if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.