head to head · open source
Harness vs cell
Harness has 38,378 GitHub stars, 3,397 forks, 106 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. cell has 746 stars, 66 forks, 23 open issues and last shipped 11 months ago. Harness leads on adoption by 5,045% (38,378 vs 746 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 | ★ 38K | ★ 746 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-16 | 2025-11-05 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.4K | ⑂ 66 |
| 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 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 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 cell
Cell is TypeScript serverless first application framework. It lives in npm/TypeScript ecosystem. It targets serverless functions, microservices, BFF, full stack apps. It also connects Aliyun, AWS, Tencent Cloud. It is component based and platform independent.
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Frequently asked questions
Is Harness or cell more popular?
Harness has 38,378 GitHub stars and cell has 746. 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 (38,378 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose cell if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.