head to head · open source
jenkins vs headlamp
jenkins has 26,719 GitHub stars, 9,819 forks, 3,610 open issues and last shipped yesterday. headlamp has 7,553 stars, 1,201 forks, 1,422 open issues and last shipped yesterday. jenkins leads on adoption by 254% (26,719 vs 7,553 stars). jenkins is written in Java under MIT; headlamp is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. jenkins has attracted 37% as many forks as stars, headlamp 16%. jenkins was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (devops), 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 | headlamp | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 27K | ★ 7.6K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Java | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.8K | ⑂ 1.2K |
| 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 headlamp if
- You want the headlamp 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 headlamp fits your workflow better
About jenkins
Table of Contents About What to Use Jenkins for and When to Use It Downloads Getting Started (Development) Source Contributing to Jenkins News and Website Governance Adopters License About In a nutshell, Jenkins is the leading open source automation server. Built with Java, it provides over 2,000 plugins to support automating virtually anything, so that humans can spend their time doing things machines cannot. What to Use Jenkins for and When to Use It Use Jenkins to automate your development workflow, so you can focus on work that matters most. Jenkins is commonly used for: Building projects Running tests to…
read the full jenkins overview →
About headlamp
NOTICE: We have recently moved the project under the Kubernetes SIG UI (and the repo under the kubernetes sigs org). Container images are still at ghcr.io. Please bear with us while we may experience some broken links. Headlamp is an easy to use and extensible Kubernetes web UI. Headlamp was created to blend the traditional feature set of other web UIs/dashboards (i.e., to list and view resources) with added functionality. Features Vendor independent / generic Kubernetes UI Works in cluster, or locally as a desktop app Multi cluster Extensible through plugins UI controls reflecting user roles (no deletion/update…
read the full headlamp overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is jenkins or headlamp more popular?
jenkins has 26,719 GitHub stars and headlamp has 7,553. jenkins has the larger community by that measure.
Are jenkins and headlamp free?
Both are open source. jenkins is licensed under MIT and headlamp under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between jenkins and headlamp?
jenkins is written in Java and headlamp 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, jenkins or headlamp?
Choose jenkins if you want the larger community (26,719 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose headlamp if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.