head to head · open source
haystack vs Temporal
haystack has 26,531 GitHub stars, 3,144 forks, 143 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Temporal has 23,133 stars, 1,905 forks, 956 open issues and last shipped yesterday. haystack leads on adoption by 15% (26,531 vs 23,133 stars). haystack is written in Python under Apache-2.0; Temporal is written in Go under MIT. haystack has attracted 12% as many forks as stars, Temporal 8%. 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
| haystack | Temporal | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 27K | ★ 23K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.1K | ⑂ 1.9K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick haystack if
- You weight community size — 27K 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 Temporal if
- You want the Temporal feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and Temporal fits your workflow better
About haystack
Haystack is an open source AI orchestration framework written in Python under the Apache 2.0 licence, for building context engineered, production ready large language model applications as modular pipelines and agent workflows with explicit control over retrieval, routing, memory, and generation, and it is aimed at developers and teams building scalable agents, retrieval augmented generation, multimodal applications, semantic search, question answering, and conversational systems.
read the full haystack overview →
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 →
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Frequently asked questions
Is haystack or Temporal more popular?
haystack has 26,531 GitHub stars and Temporal has 23,133. haystack has the larger community by that measure.
Are haystack and Temporal free?
Both are open source. haystack is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Temporal under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between haystack and Temporal?
haystack is written in Python and Temporal in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, haystack or Temporal?
Choose haystack if you want the larger community (26,531 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Temporal if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.