head to head · open source
Harness vs erlang.mk
Harness has 38,798 GitHub stars, 3,451 forks, 106 open issues and last shipped yesterday. erlang.mk has 587 stars, 238 forks, 41 open issues and last shipped 11 days ago. Harness leads on adoption by 6,510% (38,798 vs 587 stars). Harness is written in Go under Apache-2.0; erlang.mk is written in Makefile under ISC. Harness has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, erlang.mk 41%. 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 | erlang.mk | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 39K | ★ 587 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | ISC |
| Written in | Go | Makefile |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-23 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.5K | ⑂ 238 |
| 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 erlang.mk if
- You want the erlang.mk feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the ISC license terms
- Your stack matches Makefile
- You evaluated both and erlang.mk 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 erlang.mk
= Erlang.mk A build tool for Erlang that just works. guide] Embrace the power and simplicity of Makefiles. [source,make] PROJECT = webchat DEPS = cowboy dep cowboy commit = 2.8.0 include erlang.mk started] Tested and supported on FreeBSD, OSX] and Get help! server].
read the full erlang.mk overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Harness or erlang.mk more popular?
Harness has 38,798 GitHub stars and erlang.mk has 587. Harness has the larger community by that measure.
Are Harness and erlang.mk free?
Both are open source. Harness is licensed under Apache-2.0 and erlang.mk under ISC. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Harness and erlang.mk?
Harness is written in Go and erlang.mk in Makefile. 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 erlang.mk?
Choose Harness if you want the larger community (38,798 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose erlang.mk if its feature set, stack or ISC licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.