head to head · open source
Kestra vs Youtarr
Kestra has 30,122 GitHub stars, 3,495 forks, 713 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Youtarr has 1,789 stars, 86 forks, 71 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Kestra leads on adoption by 1,584% (30,122 vs 1,789 stars). Kestra is written in Java under Apache-2.0; Youtarr is written in JavaScript under ISC. Kestra has attracted 12% as many forks as stars, Youtarr 5%. Kestra was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (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 | Youtarr | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 30K | ★ 1.8K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | ISC |
| Written in | Java | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-01 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.5K | ⑂ 86 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Kestra if
- You weight community size — 30K 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 Youtarr if
- You want the Youtarr feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the ISC license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and Youtarr fits your workflow better
About Kestra
Open source orchestration platform for data, AI, and infrastructure workflows Click on the image to learn how to get started with Kestra in 3 minutes. 🌟 What is Kestra? Kestra is an open source, event driven orchestration platform for data, AI, and infrastructure workflows. It unifies scheduled and event driven automation behind a declarative, language agnostic interface. By bringing Infrastructure as Code best practices to your data, process, and microservice pipelines, you can build reliable workflows directly from the UI in just a few lines of YAML, let the built in AI Copilot write them for you, or generate…
read the full Kestra overview →
About Youtarr
Youtarr Youtarr is a self hosted YouTube downloader that automatically downloads videos from your favorite channels and playlists. It provides metadata for multiple media servers, mirrors your subscribed YouTube playlists into Plex, Jellyfin, and Emby as native playlists, pulls watch status back from those servers so you can filter your library by what's been watched, and offers optional Plex integration for automatic library refreshes. Learn more at youtarr.com. Don't want to self host? You can also run Youtarr on ElfHosted with a managed deployment – see their Youtarr docs. Like Youtarr? Consider supporting…
read the full Youtarr overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Kestra or Youtarr more popular?
Kestra has 30,122 GitHub stars and Youtarr has 1,789. Kestra has the larger community by that measure.
Are Kestra and Youtarr free?
Both are open source. Kestra is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Youtarr under ISC. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Kestra and Youtarr?
Kestra is written in Java and Youtarr in JavaScript. 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 Youtarr?
Choose Kestra if you want the larger community (30,122 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Youtarr if its feature set, stack or ISC licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.