head to head · open source
Harness vs cell
Harness has 38,798 GitHub stars, 3,451 forks, 106 open issues and last shipped yesterday. cell has 748 stars, 66 forks, 23 open issues and last shipped 12 months ago. Harness leads on adoption by 5,087% (38,798 vs 748 stars). Harness is written in Go under Apache-2.0; cell is written in TypeScript under MIT. Harness has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, cell 9%. 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 | cell | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 39K | ★ 748 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2025-11-05 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.5K | ⑂ 66 |
| 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 cell if
- You want the cell feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and cell 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 cell
English 简体中文 Cell Cell is a Serverless First , Component based , and Platform independent progressive application framework based on TypeScript. Features Zero Configuration : Out of the box, reduces configuration complexity. Based on TypeScript : Provides strong type support, enhancing development efficiency. AI Support : Provides AI basic abstraction and multi vendor model service interface adaptation. Serverless First : Optimizes Serverless application development. Cross Platform : Platform agnostic, flexible deployment. Full Stack Support : Front and back end integration, compatible with various front end…
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Frequently asked questions
Is Harness or cell more popular?
Harness has 38,798 GitHub stars and cell has 748. Harness has the larger community by that measure.
Are Harness and cell free?
Both are open source. Harness is licensed under Apache-2.0 and cell under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Harness and cell?
Harness is written in Go and cell 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, Harness or cell?
Choose Harness if you want the larger community (38,798 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose cell if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.