head to head · open source
Kestra vs Hatchet
Kestra has 28,146 GitHub stars, 2,997 forks, 713 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Hatchet has 7,957 stars, 504 forks, 135 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Kestra leads on adoption by 254% (28,146 vs 7,957 stars). Kestra is written in Java under Apache-2.0; Hatchet is written in Go under MIT. Kestra has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, Hatchet 6%. 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.
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Side by side
| Kestra | Hatchet | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 28K | ★ 8.0K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Java | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.0K | ⑂ 504 |
| 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 Hatchet if
- You want the Hatchet feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and Hatchet 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 Hatchet
Hatchet is an MIT licensed, Go based orchestration engine for background tasks, AI agents, and durable workflows, built for teams that need reliable queueing, retries, and observability while writing workers in Python, TypeScript, Go, or Ruby.
read the full Hatchet overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Kestra or Hatchet more popular?
Kestra has 28,146 GitHub stars and Hatchet has 7,957. Kestra has the larger community by that measure.
Are Kestra and Hatchet free?
Both are open source. Kestra is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Hatchet under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Kestra and Hatchet?
Kestra is written in Java and Hatchet 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, Kestra or Hatchet?
Choose Kestra if you want the larger community (28,146 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Hatchet if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.