head to head · open source
conductor vs tork
conductor has 32,401 GitHub stars, 1,051 forks, 253 open issues and last shipped yesterday. tork has 821 stars, 66 forks, 20 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. conductor leads on adoption by 3,847% (32,401 vs 821 stars). conductor is written in Java under Apache-2.0; tork is written in Go under MIT. conductor has attracted 3% as many forks as stars, tork 8%. conductor was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (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 | tork | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 32K | ★ 821 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Java | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-30 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.1K | ⑂ 66 |
| 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 tork if
- You want the tork feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and tork 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 tork
Features • Quick Start • Installation • Architecture • Jobs • Tasks • Configuration • REST API • Web UI • Extend Tork is a highly scalable, general purpose workflow engine. It lets you define jobs consisting of multiple tasks, each running inside its own container. You can run Tork on a single machine (standalone mode) or set it up in a distributed environment with multiple workers. Features REST API – Submit jobs, query status, cancel/restart Horizontally scalable – Add workers to handle more tasks Task isolation – Tasks run in containers for isolation, idempotency, and resource limits Automatic recovery –…
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Frequently asked questions
Is conductor or tork more popular?
conductor has 32,401 GitHub stars and tork has 821. conductor has the larger community by that measure.
Are conductor and tork free?
Both are open source. conductor is licensed under Apache-2.0 and tork under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between conductor and tork?
conductor is written in Java and tork 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 tork?
Choose conductor if you want the larger community (32,401 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose tork if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.