head to head · open source
Encore vs gentle-shell
Encore has 12,688 GitHub stars, 653 forks, 127 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. gentle-shell has 1,553 stars, 252 forks, 369 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Encore leads on adoption by 717% (12,688 vs 1,553 stars). Encore is written in Go under MPL-2.0; gentle-shell is written in TypeScript under MIT. Encore has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, gentle-shell 16%. gentle-shell 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
| Encore | gentle-shell | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 13K | ★ 1.6K |
| License | MPL-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-11-04 |
| Forks | ⑂ 653 | ⑂ 252 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Encore if
- You weight community size — 13K stars and counting
- You want the MPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick gentle-shell if
- You want the gentle-shell feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and gentle-shell fits your workflow better
About Encore
Encore: Infrastructure orchestration from local to your cloud What is Encore? Encore is the infrastructure platform for the intelligence era, where engineers and AI agents build production systems without waiting on infrastructure. Run and validate with real infrastructure locally and in preview environments, then deploy to your own AWS or GCP account. It has two parts that work together: An open source infrastructure SDK for TypeScript and Go. Declare the resources your app needs (databases, Pub/Sub, object storage, caches, cron jobs, secrets) directly in your code, and encore run starts the whole system…
read the full Encore overview →
About gentle-shell
gentle shell™ Your coding agent for controlled development in the workspace you lead. Website · Quickstart · Docs · Wiki Your terminal can run an agent. Your workspace should help you lead it. gentle shell is your coding agent, bringing your changes, tasks, and engineering workflow together—built for Pi. One workspace. A coding agent you direct. A workflow you can inspect. BUILT FOR PI · Coding agent workspace · Focused agents · ODD + optional SDD ★ Star gentle shell on GitHub Built for Pi. Shaped by Gentle AI. Features gentle shell — Your coding agent, in the workspace you lead A complete workspace for the…
read the full gentle-shell overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Encore or gentle-shell more popular?
Encore has 12,688 GitHub stars and gentle-shell has 1,553. Encore has the larger community by that measure.
Are Encore and gentle-shell free?
Both are open source. Encore is licensed under MPL-2.0 and gentle-shell under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Encore and gentle-shell?
Encore is written in Go and gentle-shell in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Encore or gentle-shell?
Choose Encore if you want the larger community (12,688 stars) or its MPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose gentle-shell if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.