head to head · open source
xxl-job vs rowboat
xxl-job has 30,562 GitHub stars, 11,486 forks, 79 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. rowboat has 17,871 stars, 1,776 forks, 167 open issues and last shipped yesterday. xxl-job leads on adoption by 71% (30,562 vs 17,871 stars). xxl-job is written in Java under GPL-3.0; rowboat is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. xxl-job has attracted 38% as many forks as stars, rowboat 10%. rowboat 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 | rowboat | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 31K | ★ 18K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Java | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-07-21 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 11K | ⑂ 1.8K |
| 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 rowboat if
- You want the rowboat 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 rowboat 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 rowboat
Rowboat is an open source desktop AI coworker, licensed Apache 2.0 and written in TypeScript, that maintains a memory of your work as a local Markdown knowledge graph and provides built in surfaces — email, notes, browser, code mode, meeting notes — for acting on that memory.
read the full rowboat overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is xxl-job or rowboat more popular?
xxl-job has 30,562 GitHub stars and rowboat has 17,871. xxl-job has the larger community by that measure.
Are xxl-job and rowboat free?
Both are open source. xxl-job is licensed under GPL-3.0 and rowboat under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between xxl-job and rowboat?
xxl-job is written in Java and rowboat 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 rowboat?
Choose xxl-job if you want the larger community (30,562 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose rowboat if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.