head to head · open source
jenkins vs OpenStack
jenkins has 26,556 GitHub stars, 9,835 forks, 3,610 open issues and last shipped yesterday. OpenStack has 6,034 stars, 1,625 forks, 1 open issues and last shipped yesterday. jenkins leads on adoption by 340% (26,556 vs 6,034 stars). jenkins is written in Java under MIT; OpenStack is written in Python under Apache-2.0. jenkins has attracted 37% as many forks as stars, OpenStack 27%. OpenStack 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.
← all 8884 open source comparisons
Side by side
| jenkins | OpenStack | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 27K | ★ 6.0K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Java | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.8K | ⑂ 1.6K |
| 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 OpenStack if
- You want the OpenStack feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and OpenStack 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 OpenStack
OpenStack is a collection of interoperable components that can be deployed together to provide computing, networking and storage resources. Those infrastructure resources are then exposed to end users through programmable APIs, so that capacity can be requested and managed by software rather than by hand. The project lives in the Python ecosystem and is released under the Apache 2.0 license, with development coordinated at opendev.org and documentation hosted at openstack.org.
read the full OpenStack overview →
More in Infrastructure & Operations
Related comparisons
More Cloud Infrastructure Management projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Cloud Infrastructure Management field.
Frequently asked questions
Is jenkins or OpenStack more popular?
jenkins has 26,556 GitHub stars and OpenStack has 6,034. jenkins has the larger community by that measure.
Are jenkins and OpenStack free?
Both are open source. jenkins is licensed under MIT and OpenStack under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between jenkins and OpenStack?
jenkins is written in Java and OpenStack 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, jenkins or OpenStack?
Choose jenkins if you want the larger community (26,556 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose OpenStack if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.