Drone 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.
Not the right match-up?
Drone
Container-based continuous delivery platform
VS
Earthly
Repeatable, container-based builds for CI
| Feature | Drone | Earthly |
|---|---|---|
| Category | CI/CD & Build | CI/CD & Build |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MPL-2.0 |
| Language | Go | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | docker, kubernetes | binary, docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 37,713 | ★ 12,049 |
| First released | 2014 | 2020 |
| Replaces | Jenkins, CircleCI | Make, GitHub Actions |
Why pick each one
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 Drone or Earthly better?
Neither is universally better. Drone has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Drone and Earthly free and open-source?
Yes. Drone is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Earthly under MPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Drone and Earthly with Docker?
Drone: yes. Earthly: yes.