head to head · open source
esbuild vs Woodpecker CI
esbuild has 40,122 GitHub stars, 1,368 forks, 622 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. Woodpecker CI has 8,111 stars, 737 forks, 371 open issues and last shipped today. esbuild leads on adoption by 395% (40,122 vs 8,111 stars). esbuild is written in Go under MIT; Woodpecker CI is written in Go under Apache-2.0. esbuild has attracted 3% as many forks as stars, Woodpecker CI 9%. Woodpecker CI 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| esbuild | Woodpecker CI | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 8.1K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-08-09 | 2026-11-05 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.4K | ⑂ 737 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick esbuild if
- You weight community size — 40K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Woodpecker CI if
- You want the Woodpecker CI 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 Woodpecker CI fits your workflow better
About esbuild
Website Getting started Documentation Plugins FAQ Why? Our current build tools for the web are 10 100x slower than they could be: The main goal of the esbuild bundler project is to bring about a new era of build tool performance, and create an easy to use modern bundler along the way. Major features: Extreme speed without needing a cache JavaScript, CSS, TypeScript, and JSX built in A straightforward API for CLI, JS, and Go Bundles ESM and CommonJS modules Bundles CSS including CSS modules Tree shaking, minification, and source maps Local server, watch mode, and plugins Check out the getting started instructions…
read the full esbuild overview →
About Woodpecker CI
Woodpecker Woodpecker is a simple, yet powerful CI/CD engine with great extensibility. Installation & Resources Woodpecker can be installed in various ways (see the Installation Instructions) and runs with SQLite as database by default. It requires around 100 MB of RAM (Server) and 30 MB (Agent) at runtime in idle mode. Support You can support the project by becoming a backer on Open Collective or via GitHub Sponsors. Documentation Our documentation can be found at . Translation We have a self hosted Weblate instance at translate.woodpecker ci.org. An overview of the current translation state is available at…
read the full Woodpecker CI overview →
More in Developer Tools
Related comparisons
More Build & Deployment projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Build & Deployment field.
Frequently asked questions
Is esbuild or Woodpecker CI more popular?
esbuild has 40,122 GitHub stars and Woodpecker CI has 8,111. esbuild has the larger community by that measure.
Are esbuild and Woodpecker CI free?
Both are open source. esbuild is licensed under MIT and Woodpecker CI under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between esbuild and Woodpecker CI?
esbuild is written in Go and Woodpecker CI 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, esbuild or Woodpecker CI?
Choose esbuild if you want the larger community (40,122 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Woodpecker CI if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.