head to head · open source
dapr vs workflow-core
dapr has 26,158 GitHub stars, 2,170 forks, 452 open issues and last shipped yesterday. workflow-core has 5,935 stars, 1,261 forks, 133 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. dapr leads on adoption by 341% (26,158 vs 5,935 stars). dapr is written in Go under Apache-2.0; workflow-core is written in C# under MIT. dapr has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, workflow-core 21%. dapr 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
| dapr | workflow-core | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 26K | ★ 5.9K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | C# |
| Last push | 2026-10-27 | 2026-10-25 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.2K | ⑂ 1.3K |
| 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 workflow-core if
- You want the workflow-core feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches C#
- You evaluated both and workflow-core 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 workflow-core
Workflow Core Workflow Core is a light weight embeddable workflow engine targeting .NET Standard. Think: long running processes with multiple tasks that need to track state. It supports pluggable persistence and concurrency providers to allow for multi node clusters. Announcements New related project: Conductor Conductor is a stand alone workflow server as opposed to a library that uses Workflow Core internally. It exposes an API that allows you to store workflow definitions, track running workflows, manage events and define custom steps and scripts for usage in your workflows. Documentation See Tutorial here…
read the full workflow-core overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is dapr or workflow-core more popular?
dapr has 26,158 GitHub stars and workflow-core has 5,935. dapr has the larger community by that measure.
Are dapr and workflow-core free?
Both are open source. dapr is licensed under Apache-2.0 and workflow-core under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between dapr and workflow-core?
dapr is written in Go and workflow-core in C#. 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 workflow-core?
Choose dapr if you want the larger community (26,158 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose workflow-core if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.