head to head · open source
Harness vs please
Harness has 38,378 GitHub stars, 3,397 forks, 106 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. please has 2,612 stars, 221 forks, 120 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Harness leads on adoption by 1,369% (38,378 vs 2,612 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%. please 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 | ★ 38K | ★ 2.6K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-16 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.4K | ⑂ 221 |
| 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 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 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 please
Please is an open source, cross language build system for reproducible multi language builds. It belongs to the developer tools and build and deployment ecosystem, and its topics place it alongside Bazel, Buck, and Pants as a monorepo build tool. The project is written in Go, licensed under Apache 2.0, and actively supported on Linux, macOS, and FreeBSD.
read the full please overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Harness or please more popular?
Harness has 38,378 GitHub stars and please has 2,612. 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 (38,378 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.