head to head · open source
checkov vs tfsec
checkov has 9,132 GitHub stars, 1,456 forks, 170 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. tfsec has 7,061 stars, 560 forks, 18 open issues and last shipped 8 months ago. checkov leads on adoption by 29% (9,132 vs 7,061 stars). checkov is written in Python under Apache-2.0; tfsec is written in Go under MIT. checkov has attracted 16% as many forks as stars, tfsec 8%. checkov was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 6 topic tags (aws, azure, compliance, devops), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
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
| checkov | tfsec | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 9.1K | ★ 7.1K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-03-25 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.5K | ⑂ 560 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick checkov if
- You weight community size — 9.1K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick tfsec if
- You want the tfsec feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and tfsec fits your workflow better
About checkov
Checkov is a static code analysis tool for infrastructure as code (IaC) and also a software composition analysis (SCA) tool for images and open source packages. It scans cloud infrastructure provisioned using Terraform, Terraform plan, Cloudformation, AWS SAM, Kubernetes, Helm charts, Kustomize, Dockerfile, Serverless, Bicep, OpenAPI, ARM Templates, or OpenTofu and detects security and compliance misconfigurations using graph based scanning. It performs Software Composition Analysis (SCA) scanning which is a scan of open source packages and images for Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs). Checkov also…
read the full checkov overview →
About tfsec
📣 tfsec to Trivy Migration As part of our goal to provide a comprehensive open source security solution for all, we have been consolidating all of our scanning related efforts in one place, and that is Trivy. Over the past year, tfsec has laid the foundations to Trivy's IaC & misconfigurations scanning capabilities, including Terraform scanning, which has been natively supported in Trivy for a long time now. Going forward we want to encourage the tfsec community to transition over to Trivy. Moving to Trivy gives you the same excellent Terraform scanning engine, with some extra benefits: 1. Access to more…
read the full tfsec overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is checkov or tfsec more popular?
checkov has 9,132 GitHub stars and tfsec has 7,061. checkov has the larger community by that measure.
Are checkov and tfsec free?
Both are open source. checkov is licensed under Apache-2.0 and tfsec under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between checkov and tfsec?
checkov is written in Python and tfsec in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, checkov or tfsec?
Choose checkov if you want the larger community (9,132 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose tfsec if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.