head to head · open source
Harness vs epinio
Harness has 38,378 GitHub stars, 3,397 forks, 106 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. epinio has 606 stars, 64 forks, 40 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Harness leads on adoption by 6,233% (38,378 vs 606 stars). Harness is written in Go under Apache-2.0; epinio is written in Go under Apache-2.0. Harness has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, epinio 11%. epinio was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (hacktoberfest), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
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 | epinio | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 38K | ★ 606 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-16 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.4K | ⑂ 64 |
| 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 epinio if
- You want the epinio 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 epinio 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 epinio
Epinio is an opinionated platform that runs on Kubernetes and takes an application from code to a reachable URL in one step, built for developers who want PaaS style workflows without learning Kubernetes operations.
read the full epinio overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Harness or epinio more popular?
Harness has 38,378 GitHub stars and epinio has 606. Harness has the larger community by that measure.
Are Harness and epinio free?
Both are open source. Harness is licensed under Apache-2.0 and epinio under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Harness and epinio?
Harness is written in Go and epinio 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 epinio?
Choose Harness if you want the larger community (38,378 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose epinio if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.