head to head · open source
compose vs Healthchecks
compose has 38,195 GitHub stars, 5,825 forks, 111 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Healthchecks has 10,344 stars, 1,012 forks, 53 open issues and last shipped 6 days ago. compose leads on adoption by 269% (38,195 vs 10,344 stars). compose is written in Go under Apache-2.0; Healthchecks is written in Python under BSD-3-Clause. compose has attracted 15% as many forks as stars, Healthchecks 10%. compose 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
| compose | Healthchecks | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 38K | ★ 10K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | BSD-3-Clause |
| Written in | Go | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-14 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.8K | ⑂ 1.0K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick compose 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 Healthchecks if
- You want the Healthchecks feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-3-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and Healthchecks fits your workflow better
About compose
Docker Compose is an Apache 2.0 licensed Go tool that defines and runs multi container applications on Docker from a single Compose file, aimed at developers and operators who need several containers to start together as one isolated application.
read the full compose overview →
About Healthchecks
Healthchecks is an open source cron job and background task monitoring service written in Python and Django. It lives in the Infrastructure and Operations ecosystem, in the orchestration and scheduling area, where teams need to know whether recurring jobs ran as expected. The service listens for HTTP requests and email messages, called pings, from cron jobs and scheduled tasks, called checks. When a ping does not arrive on time, Healthchecks sends alerts.
read the full Healthchecks overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is compose or Healthchecks more popular?
compose has 38,195 GitHub stars and Healthchecks has 10,344. compose has the larger community by that measure.
Are compose and Healthchecks free?
Both are open source. compose is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Healthchecks under BSD-3-Clause. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between compose and Healthchecks?
compose is written in Go and Healthchecks in Python. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, compose or Healthchecks?
Choose compose if you want the larger community (38,195 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Healthchecks if its feature set, stack or BSD-3-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.