head to head · open source
ralph vs witness
ralph has 2,516 GitHub stars, 593 forks, 124 open issues and last shipped 8 days ago. witness has 546 stars, 82 forks, 75 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. ralph leads on adoption by 361% (2,516 vs 546 stars). ralph is written in Python under Apache-2.0; witness is written in Go under Apache-2.0. ralph has attracted 24% as many forks as stars, witness 15%. witness 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
| ralph | witness | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 2.5K | ★ 546 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-10 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 593 | ⑂ 82 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick ralph if
- You weight community size — 2.5K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick witness if
- You want the witness feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and witness fits your workflow better
About ralph
Ralph is an open source asset management, DCIM, and CMDB system written in Python and built with Django. It is intended for organizations that need to manage data center hardware and back office hardware in one place under the Apache 2.0 license. The project lives in the business software and operations ecosystem.
read the full ralph overview →
About witness
Witness is an Apache 2.0 Go command line framework from the CNCF in toto ecosystem that creates and verifies signed attestations about how software artifacts were built, and it is aimed at platform, release, and security engineers who must prove artifact provenance across a software development lifecycle.
read the full witness overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is ralph or witness more popular?
ralph has 2,516 GitHub stars and witness has 546. ralph has the larger community by that measure.
Are ralph and witness free?
Both are open source. ralph is licensed under Apache-2.0 and witness under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between ralph and witness?
ralph is written in Python and witness 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, ralph or witness?
Choose ralph if you want the larger community (2,516 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose witness if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.