head to head · open source
Harness vs modern.js
Harness has 38,378 GitHub stars, 3,397 forks, 106 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. modern.js has 5,042 stars, 420 forks, 66 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Harness leads on adoption by 661% (38,378 vs 5,042 stars). Harness is written in Go under Apache-2.0; modern.js is written in TypeScript under MIT. Harness has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, modern.js 8%. modern.js 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 | modern.js | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 38K | ★ 5.0K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-16 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.4K | ⑂ 420 |
| 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 modern.js if
- You want the modern.js feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and modern.js 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 modern.js
Modern.js is a progressive web framework built on React, written in TypeScript and released under the MIT license. It is developed by ByteDance, where it is used to build upper level frameworks that have supported the development of thousands of web applications. The project lives in the JavaScript and React ecosystem, and it is closely tied to the web infra dev family of tools, which includes Rspack, Rsbuild, Rspress and Rslib. The repository has been active for roughly five years, carries about 5,042 stars and 420 forks, and shows 66 open issues.
read the full modern.js overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Harness or modern.js more popular?
Harness has 38,378 GitHub stars and modern.js has 5,042. Harness has the larger community by that measure.
Are Harness and modern.js free?
Both are open source. Harness is licensed under Apache-2.0 and modern.js under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Harness and modern.js?
Harness is written in Go and modern.js in TypeScript. 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 modern.js?
Choose Harness if you want the larger community (38,378 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose modern.js if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.