Dagger vs Earthly
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted ci/cd & build options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Dagger | Earthly |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 95 · Excellent | 54 · Fair |
| Category | CI/CD & Build | CI/CD & Build |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MPL-2.0 |
| Language | Go | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 1,024 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | binary, docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 16,294 | ★ 12,048 |
| First released | 2022 | 2020 |
| Replaces | GitHub Actions, CircleCI | Make, GitHub Actions |
What are Dagger and Earthly?
Dagger
Dagger is an open-source CI/CD engine that lets developers define pipelines as code in their preferred language and run them anywhere with a containerized engine. It can be self-hosted to power portable build pipelines.
- Pipelines as code
- Runs anywhere with containers
- Multi-language SDKs
- Built-in caching
Earthly
Earthly is an open-source build automation tool that runs reproducible builds inside containers using a syntax that combines Dockerfiles and Makefiles. It works the same on any CI system or locally.
- Reproducible container builds
- Works on any CI
- Parallel build execution
- Build cache support
Dagger vs Earthly: key differences
Both projects are written in Go. Licensing differs — Apache-2.0 for Dagger versus MPL-2.0 for Earthly. Earthly is the lighter option, starting around 512 MB of RAM against 1,024 MB for Dagger. Earthly is the more established project (first released 2020), while Dagger arrived in 2022.
Why pick each one
Choose Dagger if…
- Pipelines as real code
- Runs identically anywhere
- Container-level caching
Watch out for
- New concepts to learn
- Container runtime required
Choose Earthly if…
- Released under the MPL-2.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 12k GitHub stars
- Written in Go
Frequently asked questions
Is Dagger or Earthly better?
Neither is universally better. Dagger has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Dagger and Earthly free and open-source?
Yes. Dagger is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Earthly under MPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Dagger and Earthly with Docker?
Dagger: yes. Earthly: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Dagger or Earthly?
Earthly has the smaller minimum footprint at 512 MB of RAM, compared to about 1,024 MB for Dagger. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.