head to head · open source
kubernetes vs terragrunt
kubernetes has 128,645 GitHub stars, 45,747 forks, 3,072 open issues and last shipped yesterday. terragrunt has 9,910 stars, 1,249 forks, 235 open issues and last shipped today. kubernetes leads on adoption by 1,198% (128,645 vs 9,910 stars). kubernetes is written in Go under Apache-2.0; terragrunt is written in Go under MIT. kubernetes has attracted 36% as many forks as stars, terragrunt 13%. terragrunt 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.
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Side by side
| kubernetes | terragrunt | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 129K | ★ 9.9K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-11-04 |
| Forks | ⑂ 46K | ⑂ 1.2K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick kubernetes if
- You weight community size — 129K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick terragrunt if
- You want the terragrunt feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and terragrunt fits your workflow better
About kubernetes
Kubernetes (K8s) Kubernetes, also known as K8s, is an open source system for managing [containerized applications] across multiple hosts. It provides basic mechanisms for the deployment, maintenance, and scaling of applications. Kubernetes builds upon a decade and a half of experience at Google running production workloads at scale using a system called [Borg], combined with best of breed ideas and practices from the community. Kubernetes is hosted by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation ([CNCF]). If your company wants to help shape the evolution of technologies that are container packaged, dynamically…
read the full kubernetes overview →
About terragrunt
Terragrunt 🎉 Terragrunt v1.0 is here! Read the announcement to learn more. Terragrunt is a flexible orchestration tool that allows Infrastructure as Code written in OpenTofu/Terraform to scale. Please see the following for more info, including install instructions and complete documentation: Terragrunt Website Getting started with Terragrunt Terragrunt Documentation Terragrunt Scale Contributing to Terragrunt Commercial Support Join the Discord! Join our community for discussions, support, and contributions: License This code is released under the MIT License. See LICENSE.txt.
read the full terragrunt overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is kubernetes or terragrunt more popular?
kubernetes has 128,645 GitHub stars and terragrunt has 9,910. kubernetes has the larger community by that measure.
Are kubernetes and terragrunt free?
Both are open source. kubernetes is licensed under Apache-2.0 and terragrunt under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between kubernetes and terragrunt?
kubernetes is written in Go and terragrunt 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, kubernetes or terragrunt?
Choose kubernetes if you want the larger community (128,645 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose terragrunt if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.