head to head · open source
rancher vs rowboat
rancher has 25,922 GitHub stars, 3,222 forks, 3,371 open issues and last shipped yesterday. rowboat has 17,871 stars, 1,776 forks, 167 open issues and last shipped yesterday. rancher leads on adoption by 45% (25,922 vs 17,871 stars). rancher is written in Go under Apache-2.0; rowboat is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. rancher has attracted 12% as many forks as stars, rowboat 10%. rancher 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
| rancher | rowboat | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 26K | ★ 18K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.2K | ⑂ 1.8K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick rancher if
- You weight community size — 26K 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 rowboat if
- You want the rowboat feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and rowboat fits your workflow better
About rancher
Rancher is an Apache 2.0 licensed, Go based open source container management platform for organizations that deploy containers in production and need to run Kubernetes everywhere while meeting IT requirements and empowering DevOps teams.
read the full rancher overview →
About rowboat
Rowboat is an open source desktop AI coworker, licensed Apache 2.0 and written in TypeScript, that maintains a memory of your work as a local Markdown knowledge graph and provides built in surfaces — email, notes, browser, code mode, meeting notes — for acting on that memory.
read the full rowboat overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is rancher or rowboat more popular?
rancher has 25,922 GitHub stars and rowboat has 17,871. rancher has the larger community by that measure.
Are rancher and rowboat free?
Both are open source. rancher is licensed under Apache-2.0 and rowboat under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between rancher and rowboat?
rancher is written in Go and rowboat in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, rancher or rowboat?
Choose rancher if you want the larger community (25,922 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose rowboat if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.