head to head · open source
Harness vs proguard
Harness has 38,378 GitHub stars, 3,397 forks, 106 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. proguard has 3,662 stars, 485 forks, 176 open issues and last shipped 25 days ago. Harness leads on adoption by 948% (38,378 vs 3,662 stars). Harness is written in Go under Apache-2.0; proguard is written in Java under GPL-2.0. Harness has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, proguard 13%. 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 | proguard | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 38K | ★ 3.7K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Java |
| Last push | 2026-09-16 | 2026-08-24 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.4K | ⑂ 485 |
| 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 proguard if
- You want the proguard feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and proguard 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 proguard
ProGuard is a free Java bytecode tool that shrinks, optimizes, obfuscates, and preverifies compiled Java applications and libraries. It lives in the Java and Android build ecosystem as a post compiler step, not as a source compiler or runtime dependency. The problem it solves is that Java bytecode often contains classes, fields, methods, attributes, and instructions that a specific application does not need. ProGuard removes unused parts, renames remaining program elements with short meaningless names, and applies optimizations such as method inlining, constant propagation, unused parameter removal, and identifie…
read the full proguard overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Harness or proguard more popular?
Harness has 38,378 GitHub stars and proguard has 3,662. Harness has the larger community by that measure.
Are Harness and proguard free?
Both are open source. Harness is licensed under Apache-2.0 and proguard under GPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Harness and proguard?
Harness is written in Go and proguard in Java. 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 proguard?
Choose Harness if you want the larger community (38,378 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose proguard if its feature set, stack or GPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.