Architecture comparison

Stella Ops vs Harness

Harness is a cloud-native delivery platform with broad CI/CD capabilities.
Stella focuses on self-hosted release decision control with replayable evidence for non-Kubernetes estates.

Last reviewed: 2026-02-10

Decision criteria

How this comparison is evaluated

Each vendor page is scored against the same five technical dimensions for consistent decision support.

Deployment model: Target coverage, self-hosting posture, and runtime assumptions.
Evidence model: How decisions are justified, signed, and exported for review.
Replayability: Ability to re-run historical decisions with identical inputs.
Offline capability: Behavior in disconnected or sovereign environments.
Policy model: Gate expressiveness, explainability, and workflow integration.

Proof and methodology links: Full market matrix | Evidence and Audit | Operations and Deployment | Decision Capsule spec

Harness

⬢ Cloud-native CI/CD platform
⬢ SaaS-first (self-hosted available)
⬢ Kubernetes-focused deployment
⬢ Security scanning (STO module)
⬢ AI-powered insights

Stella Ops Suite

⬢ Release orchestration control plane
⬢ 100% self-hosted, air-gap ready
⬢ Non-Kubernetes first
⬢ Reachability?Analysis that proves whether vulnerable code is actually called by your application — filtering out false positives from scanner noise-aware scanning
⬢ Deterministic, auditable decisions

Dimension-by-dimension comparison

Decision dimension	Harness	Stella Ops
CI/CD pipelines	Yes	Yes (release-focused)
`Environment?A logical deployment target (e.g. dev, staging, prod) that tracks its own release history, promotion rules, and policy gates` management	Yes	Yes (promotion graphs)
Approval workflows	Yes	Yes (cryptographic)
Security scanning `SBOM?Software Bill of Materials - a complete list of all packages and dependencies in your software`	STO module	Built-in
`Reachability?Analysis that proves whether vulnerable code is actually called by your application — filtering out false positives from scanner noise` analysis	No	Yes (hybrid 3-layer)
Decision Capsules	No	Yes
Deterministic replay	No	Yes
100% offline operation	No (SaaS-first)	Yes ((Offline Kit))
Non-Kubernetes deployment	Secondary	Primary
Data sovereignty	Depends on tier	Full (self-hosted)

Evidence and replay gap

Harness can record pipeline activity. Stella additionally preserves signed decision artifacts for independent verification and deterministic replay.

Harness Audit

"Pipeline deployed version 2.3.1 with security scan passing."

Scan details not preserved, can't replay.

Stella Ops Audit

"Version 2.3.1 deployed with Decision Capsule containing: SBOM, 12 reachable CVEs, policy verdict, approval signatures."

Replay decision 6 months later: identical result.

Operational fit and deployment model

Both platforms deploy, but Stella is built for non-Kubernetes estates:

Deployment Targets

→ Docker Compose deployments
→ Docker Swarm clusters
→ AWS ECS / Fargate
→ HashiCorp Nomad
→ Scripted deployments (.NET 10)

Infrastructure Integration

→ SSH/WinRM remote deployment
→ HashiCorp Vault for secrets
→ HashiCorp Consul for service registry
→ Environment?A logical deployment target (e.g. dev, staging, prod) that tracks its own release history, promotion rules, and policy gates promotions (Dev→Stage→Prod)
→ Approval workflows

Pricing Comparison

Harness Pricing

⬢ Free tier with limits
⬢ Team/Enterprise: Per-developer pricing
⬢ Modules purchased separately
⬢ SaaS + self-hosted options

Costs scale with team size and modules

Stella Ops Pricing

⬢ Free: 3 environments, 999 scans/month
⬢ Plus: $299/month — all features
⬢ Pro: $999/month — scale
⬢ Unlimited deployment targets

No per-seat, no module licensing

Fit guidance by deployment and evidence needs

Harness-centric fit

⬢ Kubernetes is your primary target
⬢ SaaS-first is acceptable
⬢ AI-powered insights are valuable
⬢ Audit evidence isn't a hard requirement

Stella fit

⬢ Non-Kubernetes is your primary estate
⬢ 100% self-hosted is required
⬢ Air-gap deployment is needed
⬢ Auditors need replayable evidence
⬢ Reachability?Analysis that proves whether vulnerable code is actually called by your application — filtering out false positives from scanner noise analysis matters

Methodology: This comparison is based on publicly available documentation, release notes, and hands-on evaluation as of February 2026. Capabilities change over time. Verify current behavior with each vendor's official documentation.

Stella Ops is committed to accurate, fair comparisons. If you believe any information is outdated or incorrect, please contact hello@stella-ops.org.

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