head to head · open source
Temporal vs rowboat
Temporal has 23,133 GitHub stars, 1,905 forks, 956 open issues and last shipped yesterday. rowboat has 17,871 stars, 1,776 forks, 167 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Temporal leads on adoption by 29% (23,133 vs 17,871 stars). Temporal is written in Go under MIT; rowboat is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. Temporal has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, rowboat 10%. Temporal 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
| Temporal | rowboat | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 23K | ★ 18K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.9K | ⑂ 1.8K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Temporal if
- You weight community size — 23K stars and counting
- You want the MIT 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 Temporal
Temporal is a durable execution platform for building resilient applications with workflows. It lives in the infrastructure and operations ecosystem, specifically within orchestration and scheduling. The server executes units of application logic called Workflows and automatically handles intermittent failures by retrying failed operations. Temporal originated as a fork of Uber's Cadence and is developed by Temporal Technologies, a startup formed by the creators of Cadence.
read the full Temporal 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 Temporal or rowboat more popular?
Temporal has 23,133 GitHub stars and rowboat has 17,871. Temporal has the larger community by that measure.
Are Temporal and rowboat free?
Both are open source. Temporal is licensed under MIT and rowboat under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Temporal and rowboat?
Temporal 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, Temporal or rowboat?
Choose Temporal if you want the larger community (23,133 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose rowboat if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.