head to head · open source
Harness vs gradle
Harness has 38,378 GitHub stars, 3,397 forks, 106 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. gradle has 18,845 stars, 5,334 forks, 3,494 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Harness leads on adoption by 104% (38,378 vs 18,845 stars). Harness is written in Go under Apache-2.0; gradle is written in Groovy under Apache-2.0. Harness has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, gradle 28%. gradle 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 | gradle | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 38K | ★ 19K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Groovy |
| Last push | 2026-09-16 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.4K | ⑂ 5.3K |
| 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 gradle if
- You want the gradle feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Groovy
- You evaluated both and gradle 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 gradle
Gradle is an open source build automation tool distributed under the Apache 2.0 license, hosted at gradle.org and developed in the Groovy language. It is described as a highly scalable build automation tool designed to handle everything from large, multi project enterprise builds to quick development tasks across various languages. Its modular, performance oriented architecture integrates with development environments, and the project has grown over roughly seventeen years to a repository with 18,841 stars, 5,335 forks, and 3,494 open issues. It lives in the JVM tooling ecosystem, with topics covering build tool,…
read the full gradle overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Harness or gradle more popular?
Harness has 38,378 GitHub stars and gradle has 18,845. Harness has the larger community by that measure.
Are Harness and gradle free?
Both are open source. Harness is licensed under Apache-2.0 and gradle under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Harness and gradle?
Harness is written in Go and gradle in Groovy. 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 gradle?
Choose Harness if you want the larger community (38,378 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose gradle if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.