head to head · open source
Harness vs please
Harness has 38,798 GitHub stars, 3,451 forks, 106 open issues and last shipped yesterday. please has 2,627 stars, 223 forks, 120 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Harness leads on adoption by 1,377% (38,798 vs 2,627 stars). Harness is written in Go under Apache-2.0; please is written in Go under Apache-2.0. Harness has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, please 8%. 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 | please | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 39K | ★ 2.6K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.5K | ⑂ 223 |
| 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 please if
- You want the please 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 please 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 please
Please Please is a cross language build system with an emphasis on high performance, extensibility and reproducibility. It supports a number of popular languages and can automate nearly any aspect of your build process. See please.build for more information. Currently Linux (tested on Ubuntu), macOS and FreeBSD are actively supported. If you're a fan of Please, don't forget to add yourself to the adopters file. Getting Started =============== The easiest way to install it on your own machine is to run: Or, if you prefer, grab one of the tarballs off our releases page and extract it yourself; it typically lives…
read the full please overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Harness or please more popular?
Harness has 38,798 GitHub stars and please has 2,627. Harness has the larger community by that measure.
Are Harness and please free?
Both are open source. Harness is licensed under Apache-2.0 and please under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Harness and please?
Harness is written in Go and please 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 please?
Choose Harness if you want the larger community (38,798 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose please if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.