head to head · open source
vite vs Harness
vite has 82,861 GitHub stars, 8,745 forks, 767 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Harness has 38,378 stars, 3,397 forks, 106 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. vite leads on adoption by 116% (82,861 vs 38,378 stars). vite is written in TypeScript under MIT; Harness is written in Go under Apache-2.0. vite has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, Harness 9%. vite 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
| vite | Harness | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 83K | ★ 38K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 8.7K | ⑂ 3.4K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick vite if
- You weight community size — 83K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Harness if
- You want the Harness feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and Harness fits your workflow better
About vite
Vite is a build tool for modern web projects, distributed as a set of npm packages and licensed under MIT. It is written in TypeScript and lives in the JavaScript and frontend tooling ecosystem, where it sits alongside the bundlers and dev servers that compile application source into browser ready assets. The project describes itself as next generation frontend tooling and has been maintained for roughly six years, with the most recent push recorded in September 2026.
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 →
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Frequently asked questions
Is vite or Harness more popular?
vite has 82,861 GitHub stars and Harness has 38,378. vite has the larger community by that measure.
Are vite and Harness free?
Both are open source. vite is licensed under MIT and Harness under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between vite and Harness?
vite is written in TypeScript and Harness 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, vite or Harness?
Choose vite if you want the larger community (82,861 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Harness if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.