head to head · open source
Harness vs cloud-in-a-bottle
Harness has 38,378 GitHub stars, 3,397 forks, 106 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. cloud-in-a-bottle has 1,166 stars, 75 forks, 17 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Harness leads on adoption by 3,191% (38,378 vs 1,166 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 6%. cloud-in-a-bottle 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 | ★ 38K | ★ 1.2K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-16 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.4K | ⑂ 75 |
| 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 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 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 cloud-in-a-bottle
Cloud in a Bottle is an AGPL 3.0, Python based platform that deploys, runs, and shares web apps on a server you control, so your apps, data, and infrastructure stay yours.
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 38,378 GitHub stars and cloud-in-a-bottle has 1,166. 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 (38,378 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.