head to head · open source
salt vs Saturn
salt has 15,661 GitHub stars, 5,610 forks, 1,885 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Saturn has 2,305 stars, 686 forks, 279 open issues and last shipped 10 months ago. salt leads on adoption by 579% (15,661 vs 2,305 stars). salt is written in Python under Apache-2.0; Saturn is written in Java under Apache-2.0. salt has attracted 36% as many forks as stars, Saturn 30%. salt 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
| salt | Saturn | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 16K | ★ 2.3K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | Java |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2025-11-12 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.6K | ⑂ 686 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick salt if
- You weight community size — 16K 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 Saturn if
- You want the Saturn feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and Saturn fits your workflow better
About salt
Salt is a Python based, event driven automation framework that deploys, configures and manages complex IT systems at scale, built for system administrators, platform and infrastructure engineers, and DevOps teams responsible for keeping many servers, virtual machines, containers, databases, web servers and network devices in a consistent desired state.
About Saturn
Saturn is distributed job scheduling platform. Created by VIP.com. Java based. Apache 2.0 licensed. GitHub shows 2305 stars, 686 forks, last push 2025 11 12. It is listed under business software scheduling and event management. Repository age is 10 years. Lives in open source Java scheduling ecosystem. Provides fault tolerant and high available job scheduling service. Targets time based jobs across many machines.
read the full Saturn overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is salt or Saturn more popular?
salt has 15,661 GitHub stars and Saturn has 2,305. salt has the larger community by that measure.
Are salt and Saturn free?
Both are open source. salt is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Saturn under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between salt and Saturn?
salt is written in Python and Saturn in Java. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, salt or Saturn?
Choose salt if you want the larger community (15,661 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Saturn if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.