head to head · open source
compose vs gitleaks
compose has 38,175 GitHub stars, 5,817 forks, 111 open issues and last shipped yesterday. gitleaks has 29,364 stars, 2,236 forks, 481 open issues and last shipped 9 days ago. compose leads on adoption by 30% (38,175 vs 29,364 stars). compose is written in Go under Apache-2.0; gitleaks is written in Go under MIT. compose has attracted 15% as many forks as stars, gitleaks 8%. compose was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (go, golang), 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
| compose | gitleaks | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 38K | ★ 29K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-09 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.8K | ⑂ 2.2K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick compose if
- You weight community size — 38K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick gitleaks if
- You want the gitleaks feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and gitleaks fits your workflow better
About compose
Docker Compose is an Apache 2.0 licensed Go tool that defines and runs multi container applications on Docker from a single Compose file, aimed at developers and operators who need several containers to start together as one isolated application.
read the full compose overview →
About gitleaks
Gitleaks is an MIT licensed, Go based command line tool that detects hardcoded secrets such as passwords, API keys, and tokens in git repositories, files, and standard input, and it serves developers and security teams that need to keep credentials out of source control.
read the full gitleaks overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is compose or gitleaks more popular?
compose has 38,175 GitHub stars and gitleaks has 29,364. compose has the larger community by that measure.
Are compose and gitleaks free?
Both are open source. compose is licensed under Apache-2.0 and gitleaks under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between compose and gitleaks?
compose is written in Go and gitleaks 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, compose or gitleaks?
Choose compose if you want the larger community (38,175 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose gitleaks if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.