head to head · open source
conductor vs relay
conductor has 32,210 GitHub stars, 1,010 forks, 253 open issues and last shipped yesterday. relay has 837 stars, 64 forks, 286 open issues and last shipped yesterday. conductor leads on adoption by 3,748% (32,210 vs 837 stars). conductor is written in Java under Apache-2.0; relay is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. conductor has attracted 3% as many forks as stars, relay 8%. relay 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
| conductor | relay | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 32K | ★ 837 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Java | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.0K | ⑂ 64 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick conductor if
- You weight community size — 32K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick relay if
- You want the relay feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and relay fits your workflow better
About conductor
Conductor is an Apache 2.0 licensed, event driven agentic workflow engine written in Java that provides durable and highly resilient execution for applications and AI agents, aimed at teams running microservices, AI agents, and adaptive workflow graphs that need orchestration they can version, inspect, and recover.
read the full conductor overview →
About relay
Relay is a TypeScript, Apache 2.0 licensed real time messaging layer that gives AI agents shared channels, threads, direct messages, reactions, files, search and realtime events, and it is built for teams orchestrating multiple agents such as Claude Code, Codex or custom harnesses.
read the full relay overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is conductor or relay more popular?
conductor has 32,210 GitHub stars and relay has 837. conductor has the larger community by that measure.
Are conductor and relay free?
Both are open source. conductor is licensed under Apache-2.0 and relay under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between conductor and relay?
conductor is written in Java and relay 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, conductor or relay?
Choose conductor if you want the larger community (32,210 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose relay if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.