In 2019, Drone's 1.0 release split the project into a gutted open-source edition and a commercial one. László Fógel forked the last good version a month later. When Drone was acquired by Harness in 2020 - with a promise it would 'always remain open-source' - the fork was the only part of the story that was true.
Go-based CI server forked from Drone 0.8, kept Apache 2.0, with an agent-based architecture and Docker/Kubernetes execution. The technical difference from the original is deliberate conservatism: single binary, simple YAML pipelines, no SaaS strings attached. Woodpecker shares its user base with Forgejo - Codeberg uses both - and is the reference CI for the independent Git hosting world.
Drone, created by Brad Rydzewski in 2012, was one of the most popular container-native CI servers of the 2010s, known for its simple single-binary model and Docker-based pipeline execution. In March 2019, Drone 1.0 landed with a license change that split the project in two: the Community Edition stayed Apache 2.0 but lost TLS support, agents, and PostgreSQL - a 'free edition' so crippled that production use required the commercial PolyForm Small Business-licensed Enterprise edition.
The fork appeared within weeks: László Fógel, a Drone contributor from the early days, created a fork of Drone 0.8 in April 2019, initially named 'drone-fork' and renamed Woodpecker in August. The timing was prescient. In August 2020, Harness acquired Drone, and CEO Jyoti Bansal promised 'Drone will always remain open-source'. Harness then rewrote Drone as a data-plane component of its own platform, and the open-source project shrank to a snapshot branch. Woodpecker, meanwhile, kept the simple model alive and grew steadily - today it is a mature Apache 2.0 CI system with a healthy community, plugin ecosystem, and a notable user: Codeberg, the largest independent Git forge, runs its CI on Woodpecker.
Brad Rydzewski creates Drone.
Drone 1.0 splits the project: a crippled Apache 2.0 Community Edition and a commercial PolyForm Enterprise edition.
Fógel creates the fork from Drone 0.8.
The fork is renamed Woodpecker CI.
Harness acquires Drone, promising it will remain open-source.
Woodpecker remains actively developed under Apache 2.0; Codeberg runs its CI on it.
“I forked Drone 0.8 in April 2019, when Drone's licensing was changing rapidly, and not in favor of open usage.”
“The best way to predict the future is to open source it.”
“Drone will always remain open-source.”
Woodpecker is the purest example of the 'open-core gutting' playbook and the best evidence that it backfires: the crippled Community Edition drove users away from Drone and directly into the arms of the fork. Harness's acquisition put a corporate tombstone on Drone while Woodpecker quietly became the default CI for the fediverse's largest Git host.