Laminar vs Tekton
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?
Laminar
Lightweight and modular continuous integration service
VS
Tekton
Cloud-native CI/CD building blocks for Kubernetes
| Feature | Laminar | Tekton |
|---|---|---|
| Category | CI/CD & Build | CI/CD & Build |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | C++ | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal, source | kubernetes, helm |
| GitHub stars | ★ 352 | ★ 9,030 |
| First released | 2016 | 2018 |
| Replaces | Jenkins | Jenkins, GitHub Actions |
Why pick each one
Choose Laminar if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- Written in C++
- Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Choose Tekton if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- Kubernetes-ready with Helm charts available
- Mature project with 9k GitHub stars
- Written in Go
Frequently asked questions
Is Laminar or Tekton better?
Neither is universally better. Tekton has the larger community, while Laminar is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Laminar and Tekton free and open-source?
Yes. Laminar is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Tekton under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Laminar and Tekton with Docker?
Laminar: check the project docs for container support. Tekton: check the project docs for container support.