head to head · open source
Kestra vs livecontext-ce
Kestra has 30,142 GitHub stars, 3,500 forks, 713 open issues and last shipped yesterday. livecontext-ce has 776 stars, 73 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped 29 days ago. Kestra leads on adoption by 3,784% (30,142 vs 776 stars). Kestra is written in Java under Apache-2.0; livecontext-ce is written in Java under a custom or non-standard licence. Kestra has attracted 12% as many forks as stars, livecontext-ce 9%. Kestra was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (ai-agents, automation), 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
| Kestra | livecontext-ce | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 30K | ★ 776 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Custom / other |
| Written in | Java | Java |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-10-07 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.5K | ⑂ 73 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Kestra if
- You weight community size — 30K 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 livecontext-ce if
- You want the livecontext-ce feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and livecontext-ce fits your workflow better
About Kestra
Open source orchestration platform for data, AI, and infrastructure workflows Click on the image to learn how to get started with Kestra in 3 minutes. 🌟 What is Kestra? Kestra is an open source, event driven orchestration platform for data, AI, and infrastructure workflows. It unifies scheduled and event driven automation behind a declarative, language agnostic interface. By bringing Infrastructure as Code best practices to your data, process, and microservice pipelines, you can build reliable workflows directly from the UI in just a few lines of YAML, let the built in AI Copilot write them for you, or generate…
read the full Kestra overview →
About livecontext-ce
LiveContext The AI automation platform. One message in, a working automation out. Describe the job in chat and LiveContext builds it in front of you: a workflow you can read, AI agents with scoped access and budgets you control, and a small app your team actually uses. Chat, Workflow, Agent and App in one self hosted platform. No code to write, nothing to stitch together. An open source, self hosted alternative to n8n, Zapier and Make, with AI agents built in. The builder, built by chat: one message in, a working automation out. Five real scenarios, one loop. Watch it full size · Try the hosted version ⭐…
read the full livecontext-ce overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Kestra or livecontext-ce more popular?
Kestra has 30,142 GitHub stars and livecontext-ce has 776. Kestra has the larger community by that measure.
Are Kestra and livecontext-ce free?
Both are open source. Kestra is licensed under Apache-2.0, and livecontext-ce has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Kestra and livecontext-ce?
Kestra is written in Java and livecontext-ce 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 livecontext-ce?
Choose Kestra if you want the larger community (30,142 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose livecontext-ce if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.