head to head · open source
dapr vs hcom
dapr has 26,174 GitHub stars, 2,172 forks, 452 open issues and last shipped yesterday. hcom has 624 stars, 103 forks, 38 open issues and last shipped 13 days ago. dapr leads on adoption by 4,095% (26,174 vs 624 stars). dapr is written in Go under Apache-2.0; hcom is written in Rust under MIT. dapr has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, hcom 17%. dapr was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (ai-agents), 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
| dapr | hcom | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 26K | ★ 624 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-21 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.2K | ⑂ 103 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick dapr if
- You weight community size — 26K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick hcom if
- You want the hcom feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and hcom fits your workflow better
About dapr
The runtime for durable execution, AI agents, and secure distributed applications [![Go Report][go report badge]][go report url] [![OpenSSF][openssf badge]][openssf url] [![Docker Pulls][docker badge]][docker url] [![Build Status][actions badge]][actions url] [![Test Status][e2e badge]][e2e url] [![Code Coverage][codecov badge]][codecov url] [![License: Apache 2.0][apache badge]][apache url] [![FOSSA Status][fossa badge]][fossa url] [![TODOs][todo badge]][todo url] [![Good First Issues][gfi badge]][gfi url] [![discord][discord badge]][discord url] [![YouTube][youtube badge]][youtube link] [![Bluesky][bluesky…
About hcom
hcom Hook your coding agents together hcom is a CLI that coding agents use to message, watch, and spawn each other across terminals. Works with Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, Kilo Code, Pi, Oh My Pi, Antigravity, Cursor, Kimi and Copilot in any combination, without changing how you use them. Use it to coordinate pipelines, run different AI CLIs as each other's subagents, or just instead of copy paste. Single Rust binary, no background services. Start an agent with hcom in front, then prompt normally. Install Other install options Quickstart Terminal 1: Terminal 2: Prompt: ask the other agent their favorite cake…
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Frequently asked questions
Is dapr or hcom more popular?
dapr has 26,174 GitHub stars and hcom has 624. dapr has the larger community by that measure.
Are dapr and hcom free?
Both are open source. dapr is licensed under Apache-2.0 and hcom under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between dapr and hcom?
dapr is written in Go and hcom in Rust. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, dapr or hcom?
Choose dapr if you want the larger community (26,174 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose hcom if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.