head to head · open source
Kestra vs loonflow
Kestra has 30,122 GitHub stars, 3,495 forks, 713 open issues and last shipped yesterday. loonflow has 2,095 stars, 706 forks, 19 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. Kestra leads on adoption by 1,338% (30,122 vs 2,095 stars). Kestra is written in Java under Apache-2.0; loonflow is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0. Kestra has attracted 12% as many forks as stars, loonflow 34%. Kestra was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (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
| Kestra | loonflow | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 30K | ★ 2.1K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Java | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-09-20 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.5K | ⑂ 706 |
| 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 loonflow if
- You want the loonflow feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and loonflow 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 loonflow
Loonflow 3.0 Intelligent and Visual Process Automation System Dedicated to providing enterprise grade unified workflow solutions English 简体中文 Loonflow 3.0 A Fresh Start Loonflow is an open source process automation platform developed based on Django. After multiple versions of iteration and refactoring, we proudly present Loonflow 3.0 a version that achieves a qualitative leap in visualization, flexibility, and scalability. The core of version 3.0 is "making complex business processes simple and visual, making personalized customization needs within reach." Not only have we rebuilt the process and form…
read the full loonflow overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Kestra or loonflow more popular?
Kestra has 30,122 GitHub stars and loonflow has 2,095. Kestra has the larger community by that measure.
Are Kestra and loonflow free?
Both are open source. Kestra is licensed under Apache-2.0 and loonflow under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Kestra and loonflow?
Kestra is written in Java and loonflow in TypeScript. 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 loonflow?
Choose Kestra if you want the larger community (30,122 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose loonflow if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.