head to head · open source
Kestra vs Mage
Kestra has 28,146 GitHub stars, 2,997 forks, 713 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Mage has 8,823 stars, 990 forks, 624 open issues and last shipped 7 days ago. Kestra leads on adoption by 219% (28,146 vs 8,823 stars). Kestra is written in Java under Apache-2.0; Mage is written in Python under Apache-2.0. Kestra has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, Mage 11%. Kestra was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (data-engineering, etl), 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 | Mage | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 28K | ★ 8.8K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Java | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-11 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.0K | ⑂ 990 |
| 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 Mage if
- You want the Mage 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 Mage 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 Mage
Mage is an Apache 2.0 licensed, self hosted development environment for building, running, and managing data pipelines, aimed at data engineers, data scientists, and analytics teams who want to develop ETL, ELT, and orchestration workflows locally before scaling them.
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Frequently asked questions
Is Kestra or Mage more popular?
Kestra has 28,146 GitHub stars and Mage has 8,823. Kestra has the larger community by that measure.
Are Kestra and Mage free?
Both are open source. Kestra is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Mage under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Kestra and Mage?
Kestra is written in Java and Mage 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, Kestra or Mage?
Choose Kestra if you want the larger community (28,146 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Mage if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.