head to head · open source
cypress vs Hercules
cypress has 51,019 GitHub stars, 3,639 forks, 1,084 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Hercules has 1,162 stars, 190 forks, 39 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. cypress leads on adoption by 4,291% (51,019 vs 1,162 stars). cypress is written in TypeScript under MIT; Hercules is written in Python under AGPL-3.0. cypress has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, Hercules 16%. cypress was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (end-to-end-testing), 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.
← all 15422 open source comparisons
Side by side
| cypress | Hercules | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 51K | ★ 1.2K |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-08-04 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.6K | ⑂ 190 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick cypress if
- You weight community size — 51K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Hercules if
- You want the Hercules feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and Hercules fits your workflow better
About cypress
Cypress is a fast, easy and reliable testing framework for anything that runs in a browser, distributed as an MIT licensed TypeScript project on npm and aimed at front end developers and QA engineers who need to test web applications.
read the full cypress overview →
About Hercules
Hercules is an open source, AGPL 3.0 testing agent that turns plain Gherkin feature files into automated end to end UI, API, security, accessibility and visual tests for QA engineers, developers and platform teams who need browser level coverage without writing or maintaining test code.
read the full Hercules overview →
More in Developer Tools
Related comparisons
More Testing & Quality Assurance projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Testing & Quality Assurance field.
Frequently asked questions
Is cypress or Hercules more popular?
cypress has 51,019 GitHub stars and Hercules has 1,162. cypress has the larger community by that measure.
Are cypress and Hercules free?
Both are open source. cypress is licensed under MIT and Hercules under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between cypress and Hercules?
cypress is written in TypeScript and Hercules in Python. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, cypress or Hercules?
Choose cypress if you want the larger community (51,019 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Hercules if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.