head to head · open source
Harness vs Ceedling
Harness has 38,384 GitHub stars, 3,398 forks, 106 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Ceedling has 851 stars, 273 forks, 248 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Harness leads on adoption by 4,410% (38,384 vs 851 stars). Harness is written in Go under Apache-2.0; Ceedling is written in Ruby under MIT. Harness has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, Ceedling 32%. 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 | Ceedling | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 38K | ★ 851 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | Ruby |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.4K | ⑂ 273 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Harness if
- You weight community size — 38K 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 Ceedling if
- You want the Ceedling feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Ruby
- You evaluated both and Ceedling fits your workflow better
About Harness
Harness Open Source is an Apache 2.0, Go based developer platform that combines Git source control management, CI/CD pipelines, Gitspaces hosted development environments and artifact registries into one self hostable system for engineering teams that want end to end software delivery without stitching four separate products together.
read the full Harness overview →
About Ceedling
Ceedling ======== Ceedling 1.1.8 is the latest and greatest. See [ Release Notes ][release notes], Changelog , [ Breaking Changes ][breaking changes], and [ Known Issues ][known issues]. See 🚀 Getting Started for installation and new project set up. New goodies in 1.1.x: A [Partial][partials docs] allows a test to mix mocked and real functions from the same source module in a single test file and enables testing of static and inline functions without modifying source code. Ceedling is now complemented by a full, searchable [documentation site][ceedling docs site] available both online and as a local bundle expor…
read the full Ceedling overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Harness or Ceedling more popular?
Harness has 38,384 GitHub stars and Ceedling has 851. Harness has the larger community by that measure.
Are Harness and Ceedling free?
Both are open source. Harness is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Ceedling under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Harness and Ceedling?
Harness is written in Go and Ceedling in Ruby. 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 Ceedling?
Choose Harness if you want the larger community (38,384 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Ceedling if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.