head to head · open source
Temporal vs sdk-go
Temporal has 24,189 GitHub stars, 2,072 forks, 956 open issues and last shipped yesterday. sdk-go has 996 stars, 370 forks, 229 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Temporal leads on adoption by 2,329% (24,189 vs 996 stars). Temporal is written in Go under MIT; sdk-go is written in Go under MIT. Temporal has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, sdk-go 37%. Temporal was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 4 topic tags (durable-execution, golang, service-bus, workflow-automation), 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
| Temporal | sdk-go | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 24K | ★ 996 |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-11-04 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.1K | ⑂ 370 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Temporal if
- You weight community size — 24K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick sdk-go if
- You want the sdk-go feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and sdk-go fits your workflow better
About Temporal
Temporal—durable execution platform Introduction • Getting Started • Contributing • Temporal Docs • Temporal 101 Introduction Temporal is a durable execution platform that enables developers to build scalable applications without sacrificing productivity or reliability. The Temporal server executes units of application logic called Workflows in a resilient manner that automatically handles intermittent failures, and retries failed operations. Temporal is a mature technology that originated as a fork of Uber's Cadence. It is developed by Temporal Technologies, a startup by the creators of…
read the full Temporal overview →
About sdk-go
Temporal Go SDK Temporal is a distributed, scalable, durable, and highly available orchestration engine used to execute asynchronous long running business logic in a scalable and resilient way. "Temporal Go SDK" is Temporal's framework for authoring workflows and activities using the Go language. Add the SDK to your project The core Temporal Go SDK packages, including client , worker , and workflow , are released together as the go.temporal.io/sdk module. From your application's Go module, run: Then import the packages you need, such as: The integrations and tools under contrib are released as separate Go…
read the full sdk-go overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Temporal or sdk-go more popular?
Temporal has 24,189 GitHub stars and sdk-go has 996. Temporal has the larger community by that measure.
Are Temporal and sdk-go free?
Both are open source. Temporal is licensed under MIT and sdk-go under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Temporal and sdk-go?
Temporal is written in Go and sdk-go 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, Temporal or sdk-go?
Choose Temporal if you want the larger community (24,189 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose sdk-go if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.