head to head · open source
dapr vs rancher
dapr has 26,154 GitHub stars, 2,170 forks, 452 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. rancher has 26,002 stars, 3,224 forks, 3,371 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. dapr leads on adoption by 1% (26,154 vs 26,002 stars). dapr is written in Go under Apache-2.0; rancher is written in Go under Apache-2.0. dapr has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, rancher 12%. rancher was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (containers, kubernetes), 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 | rancher | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 26K | ★ 26K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-10-22 | 2026-10-23 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.2K | ⑂ 3.2K |
| 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 rancher if
- You want the rancher 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 rancher 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 rancher
Rancher Rancher is an open source container management platform built for organizations that deploy containers in production. Rancher makes it easy to run Kubernetes everywhere, meet IT requirements, and empower DevOps teams. Stable Release v2.15.1 rancher/rancher:v2.15.1 / rancher/rancher:stable Read the full release notes. To get automated notifications of our latest release, you can watch the announcements category in our forums, or subscribe to the RSS feed Quick Start sudo docker run d restart=unless stopped p 80:80 p 443:443 privileged rancher/rancher Open your browser to Installation See…
read the full rancher overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is dapr or rancher more popular?
dapr has 26,154 GitHub stars and rancher has 26,002. dapr has the larger community by that measure.
Are dapr and rancher free?
Both are open source. dapr is licensed under Apache-2.0 and rancher under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between dapr and rancher?
dapr is written in Go and rancher 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, dapr or rancher?
Choose dapr if you want the larger community (26,154 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose rancher if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.