head to head · open source
Kestra vs dtm
Kestra has 28,181 GitHub stars, 3,005 forks, 713 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. dtm has 10,919 stars, 997 forks, 87 open issues and last shipped 9 months ago. Kestra leads on adoption by 158% (28,181 vs 10,919 stars). Kestra is written in Java under Apache-2.0; dtm is written in Go under BSD-3-Clause. Kestra has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, dtm 9%. Kestra 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
| Kestra | dtm | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 28K | ★ 11K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | BSD-3-Clause |
| Written in | Java | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-01-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.0K | ⑂ 997 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Kestra if
- You weight community size — 28K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick dtm if
- You want the dtm feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-3-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and dtm fits your workflow better
About Kestra
Kestra is an open source, event driven orchestration platform for data, AI, and infrastructure workflows. It operates in the Java based ecosystem and is licensed under Apache 2.0. The project provides a unified interface for both scheduled and real time automation, supporting declarative workflow definitions in YAML while also offering visual and AI assisted authoring.
read the full Kestra overview →
About dtm
DTM is a distributed transaction framework that provides cross service eventual data consistency for microservices, with saga, TCC, XA, 2 phase message, outbox, and workflow patterns plus SDKs for Go, Java, PHP, C , Python, and Node.js.
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Frequently asked questions
Is Kestra or dtm more popular?
Kestra has 28,181 GitHub stars and dtm has 10,919. Kestra has the larger community by that measure.
Are Kestra and dtm free?
Both are open source. Kestra is licensed under Apache-2.0 and dtm under BSD-3-Clause. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Kestra and dtm?
Kestra is written in Java and dtm 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, Kestra or dtm?
Choose Kestra if you want the larger community (28,181 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose dtm if its feature set, stack or BSD-3-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.