head to head · open source
jenkins vs st2
jenkins has 26,719 GitHub stars, 9,819 forks, 3,610 open issues and last shipped yesterday. st2 has 6,556 stars, 797 forks, 603 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. jenkins leads on adoption by 308% (26,719 vs 6,556 stars). jenkins is written in Java under MIT; st2 is written in Python under Apache-2.0. jenkins has attracted 37% as many forks as stars, st2 12%. jenkins was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (cicd, 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 | st2 | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 27K | ★ 6.6K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Java | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-29 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.8K | ⑂ 797 |
| 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 st2 if
- You want the st2 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 st2 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 st2
StackStorm is a platform for integration and automation across services and tools, taking actions in response to events. Learn more at www.stackstorm.com. TL;DR Install Get yourself a clean 64 bit Linux box that fits the system requirements. Run the installer script: Read the docs: Questions? Check out forum.stackstorm.com Or join our Slack community StackStorm Overview About StackStorm is a platform for integration and automation across services and tools. It ties together your existing infrastructure and application environment so you can more easily automate that environment with a particular focus on taking…
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Frequently asked questions
Is jenkins or st2 more popular?
jenkins has 26,719 GitHub stars and st2 has 6,556. jenkins has the larger community by that measure.
Are jenkins and st2 free?
Both are open source. jenkins is licensed under MIT and st2 under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between jenkins and st2?
jenkins is written in Java and st2 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 st2?
Choose jenkins if you want the larger community (26,719 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose st2 if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.