head to head · open source
ProxmoxVE vs shepherd
ProxmoxVE has 30,010 GitHub stars, 2,938 forks, 27 open issues and last shipped yesterday. shepherd has 2,503 stars, 219 forks, 12 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. ProxmoxVE leads on adoption by 1,099% (30,010 vs 2,503 stars). ProxmoxVE is written in Shell under MIT; shepherd is written in Python under MIT. ProxmoxVE has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, shepherd 9%. ProxmoxVE 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
| ProxmoxVE | shepherd | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 30K | ★ 2.5K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Shell | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-09-09 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.9K | ⑂ 219 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick ProxmoxVE if
- You weight community size — 30K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Shell
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick shepherd if
- You want the shepherd feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and shepherd fits your workflow better
About ProxmoxVE
Proxmox VE Helper Scripts One command installations for services, containers, and VMs on Proxmox VE A community project — built on the foundation of @tteck 's original work What is this? Simplify your Proxmox VE setup with community driven automation scripts. Install and configure popular self hosted services with a single command — no manual package hunting, no config file archaeology. Paste a command into your Proxmox shell, answer a few prompts, and your container or VM is up and running. The collection covers hundreds of services across categories like home automation, media servers, networking tools…
read the full ProxmoxVE overview →
About shepherd
Shepherd: Programmable Meta Agents via Reversible Execution Traces [!IMPORTANT] Shepherd is in early alpha and under active development. APIs may still change between releases. Feedback and issues are very welcome! Install Quickstart Permissions Examples Docs Citation Shepherd is a runtime substrate for agent work that needs inspection, reversibility, and supervision. It records agent runs as durable, inspectable execution traces, with retained workspace outputs that can be reviewed before they are selected, applied, released, or discarded. Platforms. Shepherd requires Python 3.11+ . OS level grant enforcement…
read the full shepherd overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is ProxmoxVE or shepherd more popular?
ProxmoxVE has 30,010 GitHub stars and shepherd has 2,503. ProxmoxVE has the larger community by that measure.
Are ProxmoxVE and shepherd free?
Both are open source. ProxmoxVE is licensed under MIT and shepherd under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between ProxmoxVE and shepherd?
ProxmoxVE is written in Shell and shepherd in Python. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, ProxmoxVE or shepherd?
Choose ProxmoxVE if you want the larger community (30,010 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose shepherd if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.