head to head · open source
Harness vs ultra-runner
Harness has 38,798 GitHub stars, 3,451 forks, 106 open issues and last shipped yesterday. ultra-runner has 1,249 stars, 39 forks, 60 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Harness leads on adoption by 3,006% (38,798 vs 1,249 stars). Harness is written in Go under Apache-2.0; ultra-runner is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. Harness has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, ultra-runner 3%. Harness was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (hacktoberfest), 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Harness | ultra-runner | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 39K | ★ 1.2K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.5K | ⑂ 39 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Harness if
- You weight community size — 39K 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 ultra-runner if
- You want the ultra-runner feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and ultra-runner fits your workflow better
About Harness
Harness Harness Open Source is an open source development platform packed with the power of code hosting, automated DevOps pipelines, hosted development environments (Gitspaces), and artifact registries. Overview Harness Open source is an open source development platform packed with the power of code hosting, automated DevOps pipelines, Gitspaces, and artifact registries. Running Harness locally The latest publicly released docker image can be found on harness/harness. To install Harness yourself, simply run the command below. Once the container is up, you can visit in your browser. The Harness image uses a…
read the full Harness overview →
About ultra-runner
:runner: :mountain: Ultra Runner Ultra fast monorepo script runner and build tool. :sparkles: Features zero config : works out of the box with your existing monorepo non intrusive : no need to make any changes to your packages.json files workspaces : detects packages in existing lerna , yarn , npm@7 and pnpm workspaces, or recursively searches them ultra fast builds : ultra keeps track of file changes in your repo and only actually build a package when needed parallel builds : ultra builds your packages concurrently by default workspace dependencies : workspace dependencies are automatically resolved and used…
read the full ultra-runner overview →
More in Developer Tools
Related comparisons
More Build & Deployment projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Build & Deployment field.
Frequently asked questions
Is Harness or ultra-runner more popular?
Harness has 38,798 GitHub stars and ultra-runner has 1,249. Harness has the larger community by that measure.
Are Harness and ultra-runner free?
Both are open source. Harness is licensed under Apache-2.0 and ultra-runner under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Harness and ultra-runner?
Harness is written in Go and ultra-runner in TypeScript. 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 ultra-runner?
Choose Harness if you want the larger community (38,798 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose ultra-runner if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.