head to head · open source
Harness vs sbt
Harness has 38,378 GitHub stars, 3,397 forks, 106 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. sbt has 4,952 stars, 1,046 forks, 498 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Harness leads on adoption by 675% (38,378 vs 4,952 stars). Harness is written in Go under Apache-2.0; sbt is written in Scala under Apache-2.0. Harness has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, sbt 21%. sbt 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 | sbt | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 38K | ★ 5.0K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Scala |
| Last push | 2026-09-16 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.4K | ⑂ 1.0K |
| 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 sbt if
- You want the sbt feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Scala
- You evaluated both and sbt 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 sbt
sbt is an interactive build tool for Scala, Java, and more. It lives in the Scala ecosystem and is maintained under the Apache 2.0 license at scala sbt.org. The sbt/sbt repository hosts the build tool modules, while related code is split across sbt/io and sbt/zinc. It is categorized as Developer Tools / Build & Deployment.
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Frequently asked questions
Is Harness or sbt more popular?
Harness has 38,378 GitHub stars and sbt has 4,952. Harness has the larger community by that measure.
Are Harness and sbt free?
Both are open source. Harness is licensed under Apache-2.0 and sbt under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Harness and sbt?
Harness is written in Go and sbt in Scala. 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 sbt?
Choose Harness if you want the larger community (38,378 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose sbt if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.