head to head · open source
Kestra vs sidequest
Kestra has 28,181 GitHub stars, 3,005 forks, 713 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. sidequest has 1,015 stars, 25 forks, 14 open issues and last shipped 12 days ago. Kestra leads on adoption by 2,676% (28,181 vs 1,015 stars). Kestra is written in Java under Apache-2.0; sidequest is written in TypeScript under LGPL-3.0. Kestra has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, sidequest 2%. Kestra 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Kestra | sidequest | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 28K | ★ 1.0K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | LGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Java | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-08 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.0K | ⑂ 25 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Kestra if
- You weight community size — 28K 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 sidequest if
- You want the sidequest feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the LGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and sidequest fits your workflow better
About Kestra
Kestra is an open source, event driven orchestration platform for data, AI, and infrastructure workflows. It operates in the Java based ecosystem and is licensed under Apache 2.0. The project provides a unified interface for both scheduled and real time automation, supporting declarative workflow definitions in YAML while also offering visual and AI assisted authoring.
read the full Kestra overview →
About sidequest
Sidequest is a Redis free background job processor for Node.js that persists jobs in the PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQLite, or MongoDB database an application already runs, aimed at teams that need durable, distributed queue processing without operating Redis.
read the full sidequest overview →
More in Infrastructure & Operations
Related comparisons
More Orchestration & Scheduling projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Orchestration & Scheduling field.
Frequently asked questions
Is Kestra or sidequest more popular?
Kestra has 28,181 GitHub stars and sidequest has 1,015. Kestra has the larger community by that measure.
Are Kestra and sidequest free?
Both are open source. Kestra is licensed under Apache-2.0 and sidequest under LGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Kestra and sidequest?
Kestra is written in Java and sidequest 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, Kestra or sidequest?
Choose Kestra if you want the larger community (28,181 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose sidequest if its feature set, stack or LGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.