head to head · open source
Kestra vs nextflow
Kestra has 28,146 GitHub stars, 2,997 forks, 713 open issues and last shipped yesterday. nextflow has 3,487 stars, 811 forks, 422 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Kestra leads on adoption by 707% (28,146 vs 3,487 stars). Kestra is written in Java under Apache-2.0; nextflow is written in Groovy under Apache-2.0. Kestra has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, nextflow 23%. 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 | nextflow | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 28K | ★ 3.5K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Java | Groovy |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.0K | ⑂ 811 |
| 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 nextflow if
- You want the nextflow feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Groovy
- You evaluated both and nextflow 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 nextflow
Nextflow is an open source workflow system for scalable, portable, and reproducible computational pipelines. It is written in Groovy, released under Apache 2.0, and built around a domain specific language for data driven workflows. The project lives in the infrastructure and operations ecosystem, especially orchestration and scheduling, and its topics include bioinformatics, cloud, Docker, high performance computing, and reproducible research.
read the full nextflow overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Kestra or nextflow more popular?
Kestra has 28,146 GitHub stars and nextflow has 3,487. Kestra has the larger community by that measure.
Are Kestra and nextflow free?
Both are open source. Kestra is licensed under Apache-2.0 and nextflow under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Kestra and nextflow?
Kestra is written in Java and nextflow in Groovy. 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 nextflow?
Choose Kestra if you want the larger community (28,146 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose nextflow if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.