head to head · open source
Kestra vs genie
Kestra has 28,148 GitHub stars, 2,999 forks, 713 open issues and last shipped yesterday. genie has 1,766 stars, 373 forks, 17 open issues and last shipped 15 days ago. Kestra leads on adoption by 1,494% (28,148 vs 1,766 stars). Kestra is written in Java under Apache-2.0; genie is written in Java under Apache-2.0. Kestra has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, genie 21%. Kestra 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
| Kestra | genie | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 28K | ★ 1.8K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Java | Java |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.0K | ⑂ 373 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Kestra if
- You weight community size — 28K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick genie if
- You want the genie feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and genie fits your workflow better
About Kestra
Kestra is an open source, event driven orchestration platform for data, AI, and infrastructure workflows. It operates in the Java based ecosystem and is licensed under Apache 2.0. The project provides a unified interface for both scheduled and real time automation, supporting declarative workflow definitions in YAML while also offering visual and AI assisted authoring.
read the full Kestra overview →
About genie
Genie Introduction Genie is a federated Big Data orchestration and execution engine developed by Netflix. Genie’s value is best described in terms of the problem it solves. Big Data infrastructure is complex and ever evolving. Data consumers (Data Scientists or other applications) need to jump over a lot of hurdles in order to run a simple query: Find, download, install and configure a number of binaries, libraries and tools Point to the correct cluster, using valid configuration and reasonable parameters, some of which are very obscure Manually monitor the query, retrieve its output What works today, may not wor…
read the full genie overview →
More in Infrastructure & Operations
Related comparisons
More Orchestration & Scheduling projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Orchestration & Scheduling field.
Frequently asked questions
Is Kestra or genie more popular?
Kestra has 28,148 GitHub stars and genie has 1,766. Kestra has the larger community by that measure.
Are Kestra and genie free?
Both are open source. Kestra is licensed under Apache-2.0 and genie under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Kestra and genie?
Kestra is written in Java and genie in Java. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Kestra or genie?
Choose Kestra if you want the larger community (28,148 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose genie if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.