head to head · open source
Harness vs epinio
Harness has 38,798 GitHub stars, 3,451 forks, 106 open issues and last shipped yesterday. epinio has 618 stars, 65 forks, 40 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Harness leads on adoption by 6,178% (38,798 vs 618 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%. Harness 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 | ★ 39K | ★ 618 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-01 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.5K | ⑂ 65 |
| 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 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 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 epinio
Epinio Opinionated platform that runs on Kubernetes to take you from Code to URL in one step. What problem does Epinio solve? Epinio makes it easy for developers to develop their applications running in Kubernetes clusters. Easy means: No experience with Kubernetes is needed No steep learning curve Quick local setup with minimal configuration Deploying to production the same as deploying in development Kubernetes is the standard for container orchestration. Developers may want to use Kubernetes for its benefits or because their Ops team has chosen it. In either case, working with Kubernetes can be complex…
read the full epinio overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Harness or epinio more popular?
Harness has 38,798 GitHub stars and epinio has 618. 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 (38,798 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.