head to head · open source
Harness vs NHost
Harness has 38,398 GitHub stars, 3,402 forks, 106 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. NHost has 9,296 stars, 623 forks, 164 open issues and last shipped today. Harness leads on adoption by 313% (38,398 vs 9,296 stars). Harness is written in Go under Apache-2.0; NHost is written in Go under MIT. Harness has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, NHost 7%. NHost 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
| Harness | NHost | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 38K | ★ 9.3K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-20 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.4K | ⑂ 623 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Harness if
- You weight community size — 38K 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 NHost if
- You want the NHost feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and NHost fits your workflow better
About Harness
Harness Open Source is an Apache 2.0, Go based developer platform that combines Git source control management, CI/CD pipelines, Gitspaces hosted development environments and artifact registries into one self hostable system for engineering teams that want end to end software delivery without stitching four separate products together.
read the full Harness overview →
About NHost
Nhost is an open source backend as a service platform for modern application development, and the project describes itself as a Firebase alternative with GraphQL. It is built around PostgreSQL for data, Hasura for an instant GraphQL API, authentication, storage, and serverless functions written in Node.js with JavaScript or TypeScript. The project is distributed under the MIT license and is positioned in the developer tools category for build and deployment.
read the full NHost overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Harness or NHost more popular?
Harness has 38,398 GitHub stars and NHost has 9,296. Harness has the larger community by that measure.
Are Harness and NHost free?
Both are open source. Harness is licensed under Apache-2.0 and NHost under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Harness and NHost?
Harness is written in Go and NHost 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, Harness or NHost?
Choose Harness if you want the larger community (38,398 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose NHost if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.