head to head · open source
Kestra vs origin
Kestra has 28,146 GitHub stars, 2,997 forks, 713 open issues and last shipped yesterday. origin has 8,685 stars, 4,804 forks, 319 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Kestra leads on adoption by 224% (28,146 vs 8,685 stars). Kestra is written in Java under Apache-2.0; origin is written in Go under Apache-2.0. Kestra has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, origin 55%. 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 | origin | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 28K | ★ 8.7K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Java | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.0K | ⑂ 4.8K |
| 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 origin if
- You want the origin feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and origin 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 origin
Origin is the conformance test suite for OpenShift, an Apache 2.0 Go repository that maintains the openshift tests binary and the test exclusion rules used to decide which tests run against which cluster configuration, aimed at OpenShift release engineers, platform engineers, and CI maintainers who validate that a cluster is conformant.
read the full origin overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Kestra or origin more popular?
Kestra has 28,146 GitHub stars and origin has 8,685. Kestra has the larger community by that measure.
Are Kestra and origin free?
Both are open source. Kestra is licensed under Apache-2.0 and origin under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Kestra and origin?
Kestra is written in Java and origin 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 origin?
Choose Kestra if you want the larger community (28,146 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose origin if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.