head to head · open source
compose vs rancher
compose has 38,573 GitHub stars, 5,899 forks, 111 open issues and last shipped yesterday. rancher has 26,031 stars, 3,225 forks, 3,371 open issues and last shipped yesterday. compose leads on adoption by 48% (38,573 vs 26,031 stars). compose is written in Go under Apache-2.0; rancher is written in Go under Apache-2.0. compose has attracted 15% as many forks as stars, rancher 12%. rancher was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (docker, orchestration), 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
| compose | rancher | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 39K | ★ 26K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.9K | ⑂ 3.2K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick compose if
- You weight community size — 39K 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 rancher if
- You want the rancher 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 rancher fits your workflow better
About compose
Table of Contents Docker Compose Where to get Docker Compose + Windows and macOS + Linux Quick Start Contributing Legacy Docker Compose Docker Compose is a tool for running multi container applications on Docker defined using the Compose file format. A Compose file is used to define how one or more containers that make up your application are configured. Once you have a Compose file, you can create and start your application with a single command: docker compose up . Note : About Docker Swarm Docker Swarm used to rely on the legacy compose file format but did not adopt the compose specification so is missing…
read the full compose overview →
About rancher
Rancher Rancher is an open source container management platform built for organizations that deploy containers in production. Rancher makes it easy to run Kubernetes everywhere, meet IT requirements, and empower DevOps teams. Stable Release v2.15.1 rancher/rancher:v2.15.1 / rancher/rancher:stable Read the full release notes. To get automated notifications of our latest release, you can watch the announcements category in our forums, or subscribe to the RSS feed Quick Start sudo docker run d restart=unless stopped p 80:80 p 443:443 privileged rancher/rancher Open your browser to Installation See…
read the full rancher overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is compose or rancher more popular?
compose has 38,573 GitHub stars and rancher has 26,031. compose has the larger community by that measure.
Are compose and rancher free?
Both are open source. compose is licensed under Apache-2.0 and rancher under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between compose and rancher?
compose is written in Go and rancher 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, compose or rancher?
Choose compose if you want the larger community (38,573 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose rancher if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.