head to head · open source
conductor vs sidequest
conductor has 32,401 GitHub stars, 1,051 forks, 253 open issues and last shipped yesterday. sidequest has 1,020 stars, 31 forks, 14 open issues and last shipped 15 days ago. conductor leads on adoption by 3,077% (32,401 vs 1,020 stars). conductor is written in Java under Apache-2.0; sidequest is written in TypeScript under LGPL-3.0. conductor has attracted 3% as many forks as stars, sidequest 3%. conductor 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 | sidequest | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 32K | ★ 1.0K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | LGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Java | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.1K | ⑂ 31 |
| 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 sidequest if
- You want the sidequest feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the LGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and sidequest fits your workflow better
About conductor
Conductor Durable Execution for Workflows and Agents Build agents that adapt. Run graphs that endure. Conductor is an open source durable execution platform for microservices, AI agents, and adaptive workflow graphs. It turns runtime choices—loops, branching, fan out, tool calls, approvals, retries, and cancellation—into durable, inspectable execution. It originated at Netflix and is actively maintained by Orkes and the community. Get Running in 60 Seconds Prerequisites: Node.js v16+ and Java 21+ must be installed. Open — your server is running with the built in ui next UI. Upgrading from a previous version? The…
read the full conductor overview →
About sidequest
Sidequest Sidequest is a Redis free background job processor for Node.js . It persists jobs in the database you already run (PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQLite, or MongoDB), so you get durable, distributed background processing without standing up Redis. It is a production grade BullMQ and pg boss alternative, with a built in web dashboard. At a glance Runtime: Node.js ( = 22.6.0). Does not run on Bun yet. Storage: PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQLite, or MongoDB. Jobs are durable and persisted in your database , not in memory. SQLite is recommended for local development and tests. Distribution: runs across multiple nodes against…
read the full sidequest overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is conductor or sidequest more popular?
conductor has 32,401 GitHub stars and sidequest has 1,020. conductor has the larger community by that measure.
Are conductor and sidequest free?
Both are open source. conductor is licensed under Apache-2.0 and sidequest under LGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between conductor and sidequest?
conductor is written in Java and sidequest 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 sidequest?
Choose conductor if you want the larger community (32,401 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose sidequest if its feature set, stack or LGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.