head to head · open source
Harness vs build-server-protocol
Harness has 38,798 GitHub stars, 3,451 forks, 106 open issues and last shipped yesterday. build-server-protocol has 554 stars, 74 forks, 40 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. Harness leads on adoption by 6,903% (38,798 vs 554 stars). Harness is written in Go under Apache-2.0; build-server-protocol is written in Scala under Apache-2.0. Harness has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, build-server-protocol 13%. Harness 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
| Harness | build-server-protocol | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 39K | ★ 554 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Scala |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-29 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.5K | ⑂ 74 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Harness if
- You weight community size — 39K 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 build-server-protocol if
- You want the build-server-protocol feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Scala
- You evaluated both and build-server-protocol fits your workflow better
About Harness
Harness Harness Open Source is an open source development platform packed with the power of code hosting, automated DevOps pipelines, hosted development environments (Gitspaces), and artifact registries. Overview Harness Open source is an open source development platform packed with the power of code hosting, automated DevOps pipelines, Gitspaces, and artifact registries. Running Harness locally The latest publicly released docker image can be found on harness/harness. To install Harness yourself, simply run the command below. Once the container is up, you can visit in your browser. The Harness image uses a…
read the full Harness overview →
About build-server-protocol
Build Server Protocol This project is an effort to improve the integration between language server/editors and build tools. This effort is led by the Scala Center together with the help of other tooling developers in the Scala ecosystem and beyond. Even though the protocol currently focuses on Scala developer tools, it's designed to be language agnostic. You can read the specification here. The specification text, docs and support libraries for some of the supported languages are automatically generated from the smithy model. Contribution If you'd like to contribute to the protocol, please check out our…
read the full build-server-protocol overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Harness or build-server-protocol more popular?
Harness has 38,798 GitHub stars and build-server-protocol has 554. Harness has the larger community by that measure.
Are Harness and build-server-protocol free?
Both are open source. Harness is licensed under Apache-2.0 and build-server-protocol under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Harness and build-server-protocol?
Harness is written in Go and build-server-protocol in Scala. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Harness or build-server-protocol?
Choose Harness if you want the larger community (38,798 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose build-server-protocol if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.