head to head · open source
xxl-job vs relay
xxl-job has 30,565 GitHub stars, 11,485 forks, 79 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. relay has 837 stars, 64 forks, 286 open issues and last shipped yesterday. xxl-job leads on adoption by 3,552% (30,565 vs 837 stars). xxl-job is written in Java under GPL-3.0; relay is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. xxl-job has attracted 38% as many forks as stars, relay 8%. relay 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
| xxl-job | relay | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 31K | ★ 837 |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Java | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-07-21 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 11K | ⑂ 64 |
| 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 relay if
- You want the relay feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and relay 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 relay
Relay is a TypeScript, Apache 2.0 licensed real time messaging layer that gives AI agents shared channels, threads, direct messages, reactions, files, search and realtime events, and it is built for teams orchestrating multiple agents such as Claude Code, Codex or custom harnesses.
read the full relay overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is xxl-job or relay more popular?
xxl-job has 30,565 GitHub stars and relay has 837. xxl-job has the larger community by that measure.
Are xxl-job and relay free?
Both are open source. xxl-job is licensed under GPL-3.0 and relay under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between xxl-job and relay?
xxl-job is written in Java and relay 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, xxl-job or relay?
Choose xxl-job if you want the larger community (30,565 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose relay if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.