head to head · open source
Docker vs terragrunt
Docker has 72,113 GitHub stars, 19,233 forks, 3,902 open issues and last shipped yesterday. terragrunt has 9,841 stars, 1,227 forks, 235 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Docker leads on adoption by 633% (72,113 vs 9,841 stars). Docker is written in Go under Apache-2.0; terragrunt is written in Go under MIT. Docker has attracted 27% as many forks as stars, terragrunt 12%. Docker 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
| Docker | terragrunt | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 72K | ★ 9.8K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 19K | ⑂ 1.2K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Docker if
- You weight community size — 72K 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 terragrunt if
- You want the terragrunt feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and terragrunt fits your workflow better
About Docker
Docker, published here as the Moby Project, is the open source collection of container toolkit components and the framework for assembling them into custom container based systems, built for engineers, integrators and enthusiasts who want to modify, hack and build on container code rather than buy a commercially supported product.
read the full Docker overview →
About terragrunt
Terragrunt is an MIT licensed, Go based orchestration tool that lets Infrastructure as Code written in OpenTofu or Terraform scale, and it is built for DevOps and cloud infrastructure teams that already run that tooling.
read the full terragrunt overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Docker or terragrunt more popular?
Docker has 72,113 GitHub stars and terragrunt has 9,841. Docker has the larger community by that measure.
Are Docker and terragrunt free?
Both are open source. Docker is licensed under Apache-2.0 and terragrunt under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Docker and terragrunt?
Docker is written in Go and terragrunt 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, Docker or terragrunt?
Choose Docker if you want the larger community (72,113 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose terragrunt if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.