head to head · open source
kong vs gocd
kong has 44,147 GitHub stars, 5,210 forks, 200 open issues and last shipped 11 days ago. gocd has 7,434 stars, 980 forks, 83 open issues and last shipped yesterday. kong leads on adoption by 494% (44,147 vs 7,434 stars). kong is written in Lua under Apache-2.0; gocd is written in Java under Apache-2.0. kong has attracted 12% as many forks as stars, gocd 13%. gocd 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.
← all 8884 open source comparisons
Side by side
| kong | gocd | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 44K | ★ 7.4K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Lua | Java |
| Last push | 2026-09-07 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.2K | ⑂ 980 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick kong if
- You weight community size — 44K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Lua
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick gocd if
- You want the gocd feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and gocd fits your workflow better
About kong
Kong (also known as Kong Gateway) is an open source, cloud native, platform agnostic API, LLM, and MCP gateway, licensed under Apache 2.0, built for platform, DevOps, and AI engineering teams that need a single high performance layer to route, secure, and observe both conventional API traffic and agentic LLM traffic.
About gocd
GoCD is an open source continuous delivery server, licensed under Apache 2.0 and sponsored by Thoughtworks, Inc., that automates and streamlines the build test release cycle for teams that want to model, run, and control their own delivery pipelines.
More in Infrastructure & Operations
Related comparisons
More Cloud Infrastructure Management projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Cloud Infrastructure Management field.
Frequently asked questions
Is kong or gocd more popular?
kong has 44,147 GitHub stars and gocd has 7,434. kong has the larger community by that measure.
Are kong and gocd free?
Both are open source. kong is licensed under Apache-2.0 and gocd under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between kong and gocd?
kong is written in Lua and gocd in Java. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, kong or gocd?
Choose kong if you want the larger community (44,147 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose gocd if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.