head to head · open source
Harness vs sandboxd
Harness has 38,378 GitHub stars, 3,397 forks, 106 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. sandboxd has 944 stars, 59 forks, 14 open issues and last shipped 9 days ago. Harness leads on adoption by 3,965% (38,378 vs 944 stars). Harness is written in Go under Apache-2.0; sandboxd is written in Go under MIT. Harness has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, sandboxd 6%. Harness was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (docker), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
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 | sandboxd | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 38K | ★ 944 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-16 | 2026-09-09 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.4K | ⑂ 59 |
| 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 sandboxd if
- You want the sandboxd feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and sandboxd 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 sandboxd
sandboxd is an open source, self hosted AI app builder that runs a coding agent inside isolated sandboxes on your own server and gives every generated app its own live preview URL, and it is built for developers and teams who want the prompt to app workflow of hosted builders without giving up their infrastructure, code, or data.
read the full sandboxd overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Harness or sandboxd more popular?
Harness has 38,378 GitHub stars and sandboxd has 944. Harness has the larger community by that measure.
Are Harness and sandboxd free?
Both are open source. Harness is licensed under Apache-2.0 and sandboxd under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Harness and sandboxd?
Harness is written in Go and sandboxd 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 sandboxd?
Choose Harness if you want the larger community (38,378 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose sandboxd if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.