#55th of 36 in Backends, databases and hosting
nacos
Service discovery, health checking and dynamic config server for microservices
- Stars
- 33.5k
- License
- Apache-2.0
- Last commit
- Oct 2026
- Last release
- Oct 2026
- Language
- Java
32,571 on 10 Apr 202633,489 on 30 Oct 2026
From GitHub's daily star counts.
Checked on GitHub.
Overview
Nacos is a Java server that lets services register and discover each other over DNS or HTTP, with health checks, and pushes configuration changes to running applications without redeploys. It also offers weighted DNS routing and a web console for service metadata, config and metrics. Integrations cover Dubbo, gRPC, Spring Cloud and Kubernetes services. It is not an AI project, so it fits this list only loosely.
Who it is for: Backend teams running microservices that need a registry and central config
Ranked among open-source alternatives to Firebase (#5 of 10), Vercel (#5 of 10) and Heroku (#5 of 10).
Strengths
- Covers service registry, health checks and dynamic config in one server
- Documented integrations for Dubbo, Spring Cloud and Kubernetes
- Standalone mode starts with a single startup script from the release zip
- Web console in Chinese and English, plus Russian in the new UI
Weaknesses
- Not an AI or LLM project; fit with this list is marginal
- README gives no Docker or compose instructions
- Enterprise support is tied to Alibaba Cloud MSE
What it needs
- no GPU
Quick answers
Is nacos open source?
Yes. Its code is on GitHub under the Apache-2.0 license.
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