head to head · open source
xxl-job vs ftpgrab
xxl-job has 30,561 GitHub stars, 11,486 forks, 79 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. ftpgrab has 562 stars, 77 forks, 28 open issues and last shipped 25 days ago. xxl-job leads on adoption by 5,338% (30,561 vs 562 stars). xxl-job is written in Java under GPL-3.0; ftpgrab is written in Go under MIT. xxl-job has attracted 38% as many forks as stars, ftpgrab 14%. ftpgrab was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (scheduler), 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
| xxl-job | ftpgrab | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 31K | ★ 562 |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Java | Go |
| Last push | 2026-07-21 | 2026-08-24 |
| Forks | ⑂ 11K | ⑂ 77 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick xxl-job if
- You weight community size — 31K stars and counting
- You want the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick ftpgrab if
- You want the ftpgrab feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and ftpgrab fits your workflow better
About xxl-job
XXL JOB is a distributed task scheduling framework written in Java and released under the GPL 3.0 licence, built for teams that need scheduled jobs to run reliably across a cluster of machines rather than inside a single application process.
read the full xxl-job overview →
About ftpgrab
About FTPGrab is a command line tool for pulling files from remote FTP and SFTP servers to your NAS, server, or computer. It is built for unattended transfers: you can point it at one or more remote sources, run it on a schedule, filter what should be downloaded, and avoid re downloading files that were already grabbed. It can also send notifications after runs, so you can keep track of successful downloads, failures, and other activity without babysitting the job. It works well for seedboxes, home servers, and any setup where files need to move reliably from a remote server to local storage. FTPGrab is available…
read the full ftpgrab overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is xxl-job or ftpgrab more popular?
xxl-job has 30,561 GitHub stars and ftpgrab has 562. xxl-job has the larger community by that measure.
Are xxl-job and ftpgrab free?
Both are open source. xxl-job is licensed under GPL-3.0 and ftpgrab under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between xxl-job and ftpgrab?
xxl-job is written in Java and ftpgrab 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, xxl-job or ftpgrab?
Choose xxl-job if you want the larger community (30,561 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose ftpgrab if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.