head to head · open source
conductor vs sdk-go
conductor has 32,207 GitHub stars, 1,009 forks, 253 open issues and last shipped today. sdk-go has 968 stars, 351 forks, 229 open issues and last shipped today. conductor leads on adoption by 3,227% (32,207 vs 968 stars). conductor is written in Java under Apache-2.0; sdk-go is written in Go under MIT. conductor has attracted 3% as many forks as stars, sdk-go 36%. conductor was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (durable-execution, workflow-automation, workflow-engine), 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
| conductor | sdk-go | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 32K | ★ 968 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Java | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.0K | ⑂ 351 |
| 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 sdk-go if
- You want the sdk-go feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and sdk-go 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 sdk-go
Temporal Go SDK Temporal is a distributed, scalable, durable, and highly available orchestration engine used to execute asynchronous long running business logic in a scalable and resilient way. "Temporal Go SDK" is Temporal's framework for authoring workflows and activities using the Go language. Add the SDK to your project The core Temporal Go SDK packages, including client , worker , and workflow , are released together as the go.temporal.io/sdk module. From your application's Go module, run: Then import the packages you need, such as: The integrations and tools under contrib are released as separate Go modules…
read the full sdk-go overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is conductor or sdk-go more popular?
conductor has 32,207 GitHub stars and sdk-go has 968. conductor has the larger community by that measure.
Are conductor and sdk-go free?
Both are open source. conductor is licensed under Apache-2.0 and sdk-go under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between conductor and sdk-go?
conductor is written in Java and sdk-go 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, conductor or sdk-go?
Choose conductor if you want the larger community (32,207 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose sdk-go if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.