head to head · open source
Harness vs penguin-harness
Harness has 38,798 GitHub stars, 3,451 forks, 106 open issues and last shipped yesterday. penguin-harness has 3,111 stars, 333 forks, 77 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Harness leads on adoption by 1,147% (38,798 vs 3,111 stars). Harness is written in Go under Apache-2.0; penguin-harness is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. Harness has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, penguin-harness 11%. penguin-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 | penguin-harness | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 39K | ★ 3.1K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.5K | ⑂ 333 |
| 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 penguin-harness if
- You want the penguin-harness feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and penguin-harness 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 penguin-harness
PenguinHarness Open source, local first multi agent app development platform Fully automate building · optimizing · deploying AI applications 1000+ Models · Multi Platform · Apache 2.0 · Agent Self Evolution = 24" / English 简体中文 Why PenguinHarness With LangChain, you build agents by hand — at 1× speed. With PenguinHarness, agents build agents — at 100×. PenguinHarness runs on your computer or server and automates the agent app lifecycle from creation and evaluation to optimization and deployment. Three reasons define the platform: 1. 🏆 Outstanding results at tens of times less cost A deliberately minimal…
read the full penguin-harness overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Harness or penguin-harness more popular?
Harness has 38,798 GitHub stars and penguin-harness has 3,111. Harness has the larger community by that measure.
Are Harness and penguin-harness free?
Both are open source. Harness is licensed under Apache-2.0 and penguin-harness under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Harness and penguin-harness?
Harness is written in Go and penguin-harness 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 penguin-harness?
Choose Harness if you want the larger community (38,798 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose penguin-harness if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.