head to head · open source
opa vs rundeck
opa has 12,425 GitHub stars, 1,706 forks, 310 open issues and last shipped yesterday. rundeck has 6,356 stars, 989 forks, 81 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. opa leads on adoption by 95% (12,425 vs 6,356 stars). opa is written in Go under Apache-2.0; rundeck is written in Groovy under Apache-2.0. opa has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, rundeck 16%. opa 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
| opa | rundeck | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 12K | ★ 6.4K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Groovy |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-11-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.7K | ⑂ 989 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick opa if
- You weight community size — 12K 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 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 opa
Open Policy Agent Open Policy Agent (OPA) is an open source, general purpose policy engine that enables unified, context aware policy enforcement across the entire stack. OPA is proud to be a graduated project in the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) landscape. For details read the CNCF announcement. Get started with OPA Write your first Rego policy with the Rego Playground or use it to share your work with others for feedback and support. Have a look at the Access Control examples if you're not sure where to start. Install the VS Code extension to get started locally with live diagnostics, debugging and…
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 opa or rundeck more popular?
opa has 12,425 GitHub stars and rundeck has 6,356. opa has the larger community by that measure.
Are opa and rundeck free?
Both are open source. opa is licensed under Apache-2.0 and rundeck under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between opa and rundeck?
opa is written in Go 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, opa or rundeck?
Choose opa if you want the larger community (12,425 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.