head to head · open source
seatunnel vs docetl
seatunnel has 9,784 GitHub stars, 2,456 forks, 705 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. docetl has 4,195 stars, 463 forks, 45 open issues and last shipped 6 days ago. seatunnel leads on adoption by 133% (9,784 vs 4,195 stars). seatunnel is written in Java under Apache-2.0; docetl is written in Python under MIT. seatunnel has attracted 25% as many forks as stars, docetl 11%. seatunnel was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (elt, llm), 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
| seatunnel | docetl | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 9.8K | ★ 4.2K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Java | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-10-30 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.5K | ⑂ 463 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick seatunnel if
- You weight community size — 9.8K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick docetl if
- You want the docetl feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and docetl fits your workflow better
About seatunnel
Apache SeaTunnel Overview SeaTunnel is a multimodal, high performance, distributed data integration tool, capable of synchronizing vast amounts of data daily. It's trusted by numerous companies for its efficiency and stability. Why Choose SeaTunnel SeaTunnel addresses common data integration challenges: Diverse Data Sources : Seamlessly integrates with hundreds of evolving data sources. Multimodal Data Integration : Supports the integration of video, images, binary files, structured and unstructured text data. Complex Synchronization Scenarios : Supports various synchronization methods, including real time, CDC…
read the full seatunnel overview →
About docetl
DocETL: Declarative & Agentic Map Reduce What is DocETL · Install · Python API · YAML · DocWrangler UI · Docs What is DocETL DocETL helps you process large collections of data (structured and unstructured) with LLMs. You write each operation in natural language, e.g., "pull out every complaint in this ticket," and DocETL provides the operators you need (map, reduce, filter, and more) and orchestrates them, parallelizing work across your data, optimizes your pipeline automatically, swapping models, rewriting prompts, decomposing operations, and replacing subtasks with code wherever possible, to raise accuracy and…
read the full docetl overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is seatunnel or docetl more popular?
seatunnel has 9,784 GitHub stars and docetl has 4,195. seatunnel has the larger community by that measure.
Are seatunnel and docetl free?
Both are open source. seatunnel is licensed under Apache-2.0 and docetl under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between seatunnel and docetl?
seatunnel is written in Java and docetl in Python. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, seatunnel or docetl?
Choose seatunnel if you want the larger community (9,784 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose docetl if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.