head to head · open source
Kestra vs swarmclaw
Kestra has 28,181 GitHub stars, 3,005 forks, 713 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. swarmclaw has 677 stars, 139 forks, 20 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. Kestra leads on adoption by 4,063% (28,181 vs 677 stars). Kestra is written in Java under Apache-2.0; swarmclaw is written in TypeScript under MIT. Kestra has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, swarmclaw 21%. Kestra was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (ai-agents), 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 | swarmclaw | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 28K | ★ 677 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Java | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-06-30 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.0K | ⑂ 139 |
| 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 swarmclaw if
- You want the swarmclaw feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and swarmclaw 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 swarmclaw
SwarmClaw is an open source, self hosted AI agent runtime and multi agent framework for autonomous agent swarms, written in TypeScript under the MIT licence for developers and operators who want to run AI agents and agent orchestration on their own infrastructure.
read the full swarmclaw overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Kestra or swarmclaw more popular?
Kestra has 28,181 GitHub stars and swarmclaw has 677. Kestra has the larger community by that measure.
Are Kestra and swarmclaw free?
Both are open source. Kestra is licensed under Apache-2.0 and swarmclaw under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Kestra and swarmclaw?
Kestra is written in Java and swarmclaw 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 swarmclaw?
Choose Kestra if you want the larger community (28,181 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose swarmclaw if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.