head to head · open source
Harness vs cloud-in-a-bottle
Harness has 38,798 GitHub stars, 3,451 forks, 106 open issues and last shipped yesterday. cloud-in-a-bottle has 1,240 stars, 84 forks, 17 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Harness leads on adoption by 3,029% (38,798 vs 1,240 stars). Harness is written in Go under Apache-2.0; cloud-in-a-bottle is written in Python under AGPL-3.0. Harness has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, cloud-in-a-bottle 7%. 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 | cloud-in-a-bottle | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 39K | ★ 1.2K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.5K | ⑂ 84 |
| 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 cloud-in-a-bottle if
- You want the cloud-in-a-bottle feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and cloud-in-a-bottle 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 cloud-in-a-bottle
Cloud in a Bottle Your corner of the cloud. Deploy, use, and share web apps on a server you control. Your apps, data, and infrastructure stay yours. Why Cloud in a Bottle Most people have no access to the cloud that isn't mediated by a company with different incentives than theirs. Open source web software exists but running it somewhere means fighting infrastructure that most people don't want to touch. Cloud in a Bottle is the project our team needed and couldn't find: a corner of the cloud that's genuinely yours. Where apps install as easily as on your phone, and the data lives on hardware you control. What…
read the full cloud-in-a-bottle overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Harness or cloud-in-a-bottle more popular?
Harness has 38,798 GitHub stars and cloud-in-a-bottle has 1,240. Harness has the larger community by that measure.
Are Harness and cloud-in-a-bottle free?
Both are open source. Harness is licensed under Apache-2.0 and cloud-in-a-bottle under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Harness and cloud-in-a-bottle?
Harness is written in Go and cloud-in-a-bottle in Python. 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 cloud-in-a-bottle?
Choose Harness if you want the larger community (38,798 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose cloud-in-a-bottle if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.