head to head · open source
conductor vs waverless
conductor has 32,401 GitHub stars, 1,051 forks, 253 open issues and last shipped yesterday. waverless has 634 stars, 68 forks, 2 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. conductor leads on adoption by 5,011% (32,401 vs 634 stars). conductor is written in Java under Apache-2.0; waverless is written in Go under Apache-2.0. conductor has attracted 3% as many forks as stars, waverless 11%. 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 | waverless | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 32K | ★ 634 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Java | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-08-21 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.1K | ⑂ 68 |
| 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 waverless if
- You want the waverless feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and waverless 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 waverless
Waverless High performance Serverless GPU Task Orchestration System 🌐 wavespeed.ai • 📐 Architecture • 📖 User Guide • 🔧 Developer Guide Features 🚀 Pull based Architecture Workers actively pull tasks for better load balancing 🔌 RunPod Compatible Zero code migration from runpod python SDK ☸️ Multi Provider Kubernetes, Novita Serverless, Docker backends 📊 Smart Autoscaling Queue depth, priority, and resource aware scaling 🛡️ Graceful Shutdown Zero task loss during rolling updates Architecture Quick Start API Example Documentation License MIT License WaveSpeed AI — AI image & video generation platform. Try it…
read the full waverless overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is conductor or waverless more popular?
conductor has 32,401 GitHub stars and waverless has 634. conductor has the larger community by that measure.
Are conductor and waverless free?
Both are open source. conductor is licensed under Apache-2.0 and waverless under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between conductor and waverless?
conductor is written in Java and waverless 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 waverless?
Choose conductor if you want the larger community (32,401 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose waverless if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.