head to head · open source
lynis vs aircrack-ng
lynis has 16,359 GitHub stars, 1,636 forks, 224 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. aircrack-ng has 7,659 stars, 1,375 forks, 462 open issues and last shipped 11 days ago. lynis leads on adoption by 114% (16,359 vs 7,659 stars). lynis is written in Shell under GPL-3.0; aircrack-ng is written in C under GPL-2.0. lynis has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, aircrack-ng 18%. lynis was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| lynis | aircrack-ng | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 16K | ★ 7.7K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | GPL-2.0 |
| Written in | Shell | C |
| Last push | 2026-09-16 | 2026-09-09 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.6K | ⑂ 1.4K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick lynis if
- You weight community size — 16K stars and counting
- You want the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Shell
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick aircrack-ng if
- You want the aircrack-ng feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C
- You evaluated both and aircrack-ng fits your workflow better
About lynis
Lynis is an agentless, GPL 3.0 security auditing and hardening tool that runs on the UNIX based system itself, built for system administrators, auditors, security officers, and penetration testers who need to assess security defenses and test compliance against standards such as ISO27001, PCI DSS, and HIPAA.
read the full lynis overview →
About aircrack-ng
Aircrack ng is a GPL 2.0 licensed suite of WiFi security auditing tools written in C, intended for network auditors, penetration testers, and compliance and risk management teams who assess wireless networks on hardware they control.
read the full aircrack-ng overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is lynis or aircrack-ng more popular?
lynis has 16,359 GitHub stars and aircrack-ng has 7,659. lynis has the larger community by that measure.
Are lynis and aircrack-ng free?
Both are open source. lynis is licensed under GPL-3.0 and aircrack-ng under GPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between lynis and aircrack-ng?
lynis is written in Shell and aircrack-ng in C. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, lynis or aircrack-ng?
Choose lynis if you want the larger community (16,359 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose aircrack-ng if its feature set, stack or GPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.