head to head · open source
Harness vs middy
Harness has 38,378 GitHub stars, 3,397 forks, 106 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. middy has 3,904 stars, 399 forks, 9 open issues and last shipped 6 days ago. Harness leads on adoption by 883% (38,378 vs 3,904 stars). Harness is written in Go under Apache-2.0; middy is written in JavaScript under MIT. Harness has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, middy 10%. 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 | middy | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 38K | ★ 3.9K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-16 | 2026-09-12 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.4K | ⑂ 399 |
| 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 middy if
- You want the middy feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and middy 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 middy
Middy middleware engine AWS Lambda Node.js. Handler focus business logic. Attach reusable steps parsing, validation, auth, observability, error handling, AWS service integration. Ecosystem JavaScript TypeScript serverless. Official packages cover Lambda event sources and HTTP services. Project MIT licensed. Homepage middy.js.org. Docs cover getting started, official middlewares, event types, routers, custom middlewares, recipes, FAQ. GitHub metadata lists 3904 stars, 399 forks, 9 open issues, 9 year repo age, and last push 2026 09 12T15:33:46Z.
read the full middy overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Harness or middy more popular?
Harness has 38,378 GitHub stars and middy has 3,904. Harness has the larger community by that measure.
Are Harness and middy free?
Both are open source. Harness is licensed under Apache-2.0 and middy under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Harness and middy?
Harness is written in Go and middy in JavaScript. 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 middy?
Choose Harness if you want the larger community (38,378 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose middy if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.