head to head · open source
conductor vs swarm-cronjob
conductor has 32,404 GitHub stars, 1,050 forks, 253 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. swarm-cronjob has 889 stars, 77 forks, 40 open issues and last shipped 10 days ago. conductor leads on adoption by 3,545% (32,404 vs 889 stars). conductor is written in Java under Apache-2.0; swarm-cronjob is written in Go under MIT. conductor has attracted 3% as many forks as stars, swarm-cronjob 9%. 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 | swarm-cronjob | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 32K | ★ 889 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Java | Go |
| Last push | 2026-10-31 | 2026-10-24 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.1K | ⑂ 77 |
| 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 swarm-cronjob if
- You want the swarm-cronjob feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and swarm-cronjob 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 swarm-cronjob
About swarm cronjob lets you run recurring jobs on Docker Swarm by defining cron style schedules with service labels. It watches your services through the Docker API, keeps its configuration in sync automatically, and creates scheduled job runs across the cluster without requiring a separate scheduler. [!TIP] Want to be notified of new releases? Check out 🔔 Diun (Docker Image Update Notifier) project! Documentation Documentation can be found on Contributing Want to contribute? Awesome! The most basic way to show your support is to star the project, or to raise issues. You can also support this project by…
read the full swarm-cronjob overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is conductor or swarm-cronjob more popular?
conductor has 32,404 GitHub stars and swarm-cronjob has 889. conductor has the larger community by that measure.
Are conductor and swarm-cronjob free?
Both are open source. conductor is licensed under Apache-2.0 and swarm-cronjob under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between conductor and swarm-cronjob?
conductor is written in Java and swarm-cronjob 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 swarm-cronjob?
Choose conductor if you want the larger community (32,404 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose swarm-cronjob if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.