head to head · open source
xxl-job vs Dagu
xxl-job has 30,566 GitHub stars, 11,490 forks, 79 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. Dagu has 4,036 stars, 339 forks, 67 open issues and last shipped yesterday. xxl-job leads on adoption by 657% (30,566 vs 4,036 stars). xxl-job is written in Java under GPL-3.0; Dagu is written in Go under GPL-3.0. xxl-job has attracted 38% as many forks as stars, Dagu 8%. Dagu was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (cron), 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 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| xxl-job | Dagu | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 31K | ★ 4.0K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Java | Go |
| Last push | 2026-07-21 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 11K | ⑂ 339 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick xxl-job if
- You weight community size — 31K stars and counting
- You want the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Dagu if
- You want the Dagu feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and Dagu fits your workflow better
About xxl-job
XXL JOB is a distributed task scheduling framework written in Java and released under the GPL 3.0 licence, built for teams that need scheduled jobs to run reliably across a cluster of machines rather than inside a single application process.
read the full xxl-job overview →
About Dagu
Dagu is local first workflow engine. It targets operations and internal automation. It lives in Infrastructure & Operations / Orchestration & Scheduling. It is Go project under GPL 3.0. It provides single binary with built in Web UI. It needs no external database or message broker. It runs on Linux, macOS, Windows. GitHub metadata lists 3982 stars, 332 forks, 0 contributors, 67 open issues, repo age 0 years, last push 2026 09 14.
More in Infrastructure & Operations
Related comparisons
More Orchestration & Scheduling projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Orchestration & Scheduling field.
Frequently asked questions
Is xxl-job or Dagu more popular?
xxl-job has 30,566 GitHub stars and Dagu has 4,036. xxl-job has the larger community by that measure.
Are xxl-job and Dagu free?
Both are open source. xxl-job is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Dagu under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between xxl-job and Dagu?
xxl-job is written in Java and Dagu 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, xxl-job or Dagu?
Choose xxl-job if you want the larger community (30,566 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Dagu if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.