# Blackbox exporter vs harness

> Two self-hosted projects, compared on the numbers selfhost.directory tracks live: score, popularity, release cadence and setup effort.

| | Blackbox exporter | harness |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 70/100 | 80/100 ✓ |
| Rank in category | #3 of 51 in Monitoring & observability | #3 of 28 in CI/CD |
| GitHub stars | 5 922 | 38 746 ✓ |
| Stars, last 30 days | +16 | +319 ✓ |
| Stable releases, 12 months | 3 | 6 ✓ |
| Latest release | v0.29.1 · 21 Oct 2026 ✓ | v2.28.2 · 20 Apr 2026 |
| Setup | Easy ✓ | Easy |
| Official Docker image | Yes | Yes |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Main language | Go | Go |

## Which one should you pick?

harness scores 80/100 against 70/100 for Blackbox exporter, so it is the safer default.

harness ships more often: 6 stable releases in the past year, against 3 for Blackbox exporter.

harness is growing faster right now (+319 stars in 30 days).

## Details

- [Blackbox exporter](https://selfhost.directory/project/blackbox-exporter) (markdown: https://selfhost.directory/project/blackbox-exporter.md)
- [harness](https://selfhost.directory/project/harness) (markdown: https://selfhost.directory/project/harness.md)

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Source: https://selfhost.directory/compare/blackbox-exporter-vs-harness