head to head · open source
lighthouse vs rundeck
lighthouse has 31,005 GitHub stars, 9,785 forks, 470 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. rundeck has 6,353 stars, 989 forks, 81 open issues and last shipped yesterday. lighthouse leads on adoption by 388% (31,005 vs 6,353 stars). lighthouse is written in JavaScript under Apache-2.0; rundeck is written in Groovy under Apache-2.0. lighthouse has attracted 32% as many forks as stars, rundeck 16%. rundeck was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (audit), 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
| lighthouse | rundeck | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 31K | ★ 6.4K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | Groovy |
| Last push | 2026-11-01 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.8K | ⑂ 989 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick lighthouse if
- You weight community size — 31K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick rundeck if
- You want the rundeck feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Groovy
- You evaluated both and rundeck fits your workflow better
About lighthouse
Lighthouse Lighthouse analyzes web apps and web pages, collecting modern performance metrics and insights on developer best practices. Using Lighthouse Using Lighthouse in Chrome DevTools Using the Chrome extension Using the Node CLI CLI options Using the Node module Viewing a report Online Viewer Docs & Recipes Developing Lighthouse Setup Run Tests Docs Associated Products and Projects Lighthouse Integrations in Web Perf services Lighthouse Integrations in non Web Perf services Plugins Related projects FAQ How does Lighthouse work? Can I configure the lighthouse run? How does Lighthouse use network throttling…
read the full lighthouse overview →
About rundeck
Execute workflows across your existing automations or quickly automate previously manual procedures. Rundeck by PagerDuty is an open source runbook automation service with a web console, command line tools and a WebAPI. It lets you easily standardize tasks to improve operational quality by deploying automation across a set of nodes. Visit the Website Read the latest documentation Get help from the Community Install Rundeck See the Release Notes for the latest version information. How To Build: Primary build is supported with gradle. More info in the wiki. Requirements: Java 11, NodeJs 18 Cloudsmith…
read the full rundeck overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is lighthouse or rundeck more popular?
lighthouse has 31,005 GitHub stars and rundeck has 6,353. lighthouse has the larger community by that measure.
Are lighthouse and rundeck free?
Both are open source. lighthouse is licensed under Apache-2.0 and rundeck under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between lighthouse and rundeck?
lighthouse is written in JavaScript and rundeck in Groovy. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, lighthouse or rundeck?
Choose lighthouse if you want the larger community (31,005 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose rundeck if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.