head to head · open source
Harness vs devbox
Harness has 38,378 GitHub stars, 3,397 forks, 106 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. devbox has 12,362 stars, 357 forks, 466 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Harness leads on adoption by 210% (38,378 vs 12,362 stars). Harness is written in Go under Apache-2.0; devbox is written in Go under Apache-2.0. Harness has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, devbox 3%. devbox 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 | devbox | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 38K | ★ 12K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-16 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.4K | ⑂ 357 |
| 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 devbox if
- You want the devbox feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and devbox 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 devbox
Devbox is an open source, Apache 2.0 licensed command line tool written in Go that creates isolated, reproducible development shells from a single declaration file, and it is aimed at individual developers and teams who need identical toolchain versions on every machine and in every environment.
read the full devbox overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Harness or devbox more popular?
Harness has 38,378 GitHub stars and devbox has 12,362. Harness has the larger community by that measure.
Are Harness and devbox free?
Both are open source. Harness is licensed under Apache-2.0 and devbox under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Harness and devbox?
Harness is written in Go and devbox in Go. 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 devbox?
Choose Harness if you want the larger community (38,378 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose devbox if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.