# checkmate vs harness

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

| | checkmate | harness |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 72/100 | 80/100 ✓ |
| Rank in category | #15 of 104 in Monitoring & observability | #3 of 28 in CI/CD |
| GitHub stars | 11 007 | 38 753 ✓ |
| Stars, last 30 days | +120 | +319 ✓ |
| Stable releases, 12 months | 15 ✓ | 6 |
| Latest release | v3.13.1 · 22 Oct 2026 ✓ | v2.28.2 · 20 Apr 2026 |
| Setup | Easy | Easy |
| Official Docker image | Yes | Yes |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Main language | Typescript | Go |

## Which one should you pick?

harness scores 80/100 against 72/100 for checkmate, so it is the safer default.

checkmate ships more often: 15 stable releases in the past year, against 6 for harness.

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

## Details

- [checkmate](https://selfhost.directory/project/checkmate) (markdown: https://selfhost.directory/project/checkmate.md)
- [harness](https://selfhost.directory/project/harness) (markdown: https://selfhost.directory/project/harness.md)

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Source: https://selfhost.directory/compare/checkmate-vs-harness