head to head · open source
jenkins vs Digger
jenkins has 26,556 GitHub stars, 9,835 forks, 3,610 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Digger has 5,045 stars, 611 forks, 482 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. jenkins leads on adoption by 426% (26,556 vs 5,045 stars). jenkins is written in Java under MIT; Digger is written in Go under MIT. jenkins has attracted 37% as many forks as stars, Digger 12%. jenkins 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.
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Side by side
| jenkins | Digger | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 27K | ★ 5.0K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Java | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-15 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.8K | ⑂ 611 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick jenkins if
- You weight community size — 27K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Digger if
- You want the Digger feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and Digger fits your workflow better
About jenkins
Jenkins is an open source automation server built with Java and released under the MIT license. It lives in the continuous integration and continuous delivery ecosystem, where it has served as a central automation hub for roughly sixteen years. The project is developed in the open on GitHub, where it has accumulated 26,546 stars and 9,833 forks, and it is distributed through the official jenkins.io website alongside documentation, plugin listings, and release notes. Two release lines are maintained: a weekly line that carries all new features, improvements, and bug fixes, and a Long Term Support line that receive…
read the full jenkins overview →
About Digger
Digger is an open source infrastructure as code orchestration tool written in Go and released under the MIT license. It runs Terraform natively inside an existing CI pipeline rather than on a separate hosted service, and it lives in the Terraform and OpenTofu ecosystem alongside the category of tools the project calls TACOS, or Terraform Automation and Collaboration Software. The project has been rebranded to OpenTaco as of 7 November 2025, while the company behind it remains Digger and the engine is unchanged.
read the full Digger overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is jenkins or Digger more popular?
jenkins has 26,556 GitHub stars and Digger has 5,045. jenkins has the larger community by that measure.
Are jenkins and Digger free?
Both are open source. jenkins is licensed under MIT and Digger under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between jenkins and Digger?
jenkins is written in Java and Digger 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, jenkins or Digger?
Choose jenkins if you want the larger community (26,556 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Digger if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.