head to head · open source
Kestra vs Trigger
Kestra has 28,146 GitHub stars, 2,997 forks, 713 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Trigger has 16,324 stars, 1,462 forks, 342 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Kestra leads on adoption by 72% (28,146 vs 16,324 stars). Kestra is written in Java under Apache-2.0; Trigger is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. Kestra has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, Trigger 9%. Kestra was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (ai-agents, automation), 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 | Trigger | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 28K | ★ 16K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Java | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.0K | ⑂ 1.5K |
| 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 Trigger if
- You want the Trigger feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Trigger 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 Trigger
Trigger is an open source TypeScript platform for building and deploying AI agents and workflow tasks. It lives in the infrastructure, orchestration, and scheduling ecosystem, and it is positioned as a way to run long running AI tasks without typical serverless timeout constraints. The project provides a software development kit, a deployment target, and operational features such as retries, queues, observability, and elastic scaling.
read the full Trigger overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Kestra or Trigger more popular?
Kestra has 28,146 GitHub stars and Trigger has 16,324. Kestra has the larger community by that measure.
Are Kestra and Trigger free?
Both are open source. Kestra is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Trigger under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Kestra and Trigger?
Kestra is written in Java and Trigger 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 Trigger?
Choose Kestra if you want the larger community (28,146 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Trigger if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.