head to head · open source
Kestra vs workflow-core
Kestra has 28,181 GitHub stars, 3,005 forks, 713 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. workflow-core has 5,926 stars, 1,262 forks, 133 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. Kestra leads on adoption by 376% (28,181 vs 5,926 stars). Kestra is written in Java under Apache-2.0; workflow-core is written in C# under MIT. Kestra has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, workflow-core 21%. Kestra was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (hacktoberfest), 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
| Kestra | workflow-core | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 28K | ★ 5.9K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Java | C# |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.0K | ⑂ 1.3K |
| 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 workflow-core if
- You want the workflow-core feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches C#
- You evaluated both and workflow-core 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 workflow-core
Workflow Core is a lightweight, embeddable workflow engine targeting .NET Standard, written in C and released under the MIT license. It lives in the .NET ecosystem, distributed as NuGet packages, and is built around the idea of long running processes that contain multiple tasks and must track their state between steps. Rather than running as a separate server, it is a library that is hosted inside an application, and it exposes a fluent C API for defining workflows. Workflows are expressed as a starting step followed by chained steps, and the same class can declare inputs and outputs that move data from one step …
read the full workflow-core overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Kestra or workflow-core more popular?
Kestra has 28,181 GitHub stars and workflow-core has 5,926. Kestra has the larger community by that measure.
Are Kestra and workflow-core free?
Both are open source. Kestra is licensed under Apache-2.0 and workflow-core under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Kestra and workflow-core?
Kestra is written in Java and workflow-core in C#. 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 workflow-core?
Choose Kestra if you want the larger community (28,181 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose workflow-core if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.