head to head · open source
Harness vs kubevela
Harness has 38,798 GitHub stars, 3,451 forks, 106 open issues and last shipped yesterday. kubevela has 7,920 stars, 1,080 forks, 269 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. Harness leads on adoption by 390% (38,798 vs 7,920 stars). Harness is written in Go under Apache-2.0; kubevela is written in Go under Apache-2.0. Harness has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, kubevela 14%. Harness was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (continuous-delivery, 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 | kubevela | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 39K | ★ 7.9K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-31 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.5K | ⑂ 1.1K |
| 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 kubevela if
- You want the kubevela 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 kubevela 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 kubevela
Make shipping applications more enjoyable. Introduction KubeVela is a modern application delivery platform that makes deploying and operating applications across today's hybrid, multi cloud environments easier, faster and more reliable. Highlights KubeVela practices the "render, orchestrate, deploy" workflow with below highlighted values added to existing ecosystem: Deployment as Code Declare your deployment plan as workflow, run it automatically with any CI/CD or GitOps system, extend or re program the workflow steps with CUE. No ad hoc scripts, no dirty glue code, just deploy. The deployment workflow in…
read the full kubevela overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Harness or kubevela more popular?
Harness has 38,798 GitHub stars and kubevela has 7,920. Harness has the larger community by that measure.
Are Harness and kubevela free?
Both are open source. Harness is licensed under Apache-2.0 and kubevela under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Harness and kubevela?
Harness is written in Go and kubevela 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 kubevela?
Choose Harness if you want the larger community (38,798 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose kubevela if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.