head to head · open source
Harness vs Stormkit
Harness has 38,378 GitHub stars, 3,397 forks, 106 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Stormkit has 260 stars, 15 forks, 13 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Harness leads on adoption by 14,661% (38,378 vs 260 stars). Harness is written in Go under Apache-2.0; Stormkit is written in Go under a custom or non-standard licence. Harness has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, Stormkit 6%. Harness was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (ci-cd, 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 | Stormkit | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 38K | ★ 260 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Custom / other |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-16 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.4K | ⑂ 15 |
| 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 Stormkit if
- You want the Stormkit feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and Stormkit 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 Stormkit
Stormkit is a self hostable deployment platform for modern web applications, presented as an open alternative to Vercel and Netlify and aimed at developers and teams who want automated CI/CD, per branch previews and custom domains on infrastructure they own.
read the full Stormkit overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Harness or Stormkit more popular?
Harness has 38,378 GitHub stars and Stormkit has 260. Harness has the larger community by that measure.
Are Harness and Stormkit free?
Both are open source. Harness is licensed under Apache-2.0, and Stormkit has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Harness and Stormkit?
Harness is written in Go and Stormkit 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 Stormkit?
Choose Harness if you want the larger community (38,378 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Stormkit if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.