head to head · open source
compose vs gitleaks
compose has 38,573 GitHub stars, 5,899 forks, 111 open issues and last shipped yesterday. gitleaks has 30,603 stars, 2,330 forks, 481 open issues and last shipped 6 days ago. compose leads on adoption by 26% (38,573 vs 30,603 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 | ★ 39K | ★ 31K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-28 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.9K | ⑂ 2.3K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick compose if
- You weight community size — 39K 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
Table of Contents Docker Compose Where to get Docker Compose + Windows and macOS + Linux Quick Start Contributing Legacy Docker Compose Docker Compose is a tool for running multi container applications on Docker defined using the Compose file format. A Compose file is used to define how one or more containers that make up your application are configured. Once you have a Compose file, you can create and start your application with a single command: docker compose up . Note : About Docker Swarm Docker Swarm used to rely on the legacy compose file format but did not adopt the compose specification so is missing…
read the full compose overview →
About gitleaks
Gitleaks [!WARNING] Gitleaks is feature complete. I'm not merging new features into Gitleaks. Future releases will be security patches only. I'm shifting my focus to Betterleaks [license]: ./LICENSE [badge license]: [go docs badge]: [go docs]: [badge build]: [build]: [go report card badge]: [go report card]: [dockerhub]: [dockerhub badge]: [gitleaks action]: [gitleaks badge]: [![GitHub Action Test][badge build]][build] [![Docker Hub][dockerhub badge]][dockerhub] [![Gitleaks Action][gitleaks badge]][gitleaks action] [![GoDoc][go docs badge]][go docs] [![GoReportCard][go report card badge]][go report card]…
read the full gitleaks overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is compose or gitleaks more popular?
compose has 38,573 GitHub stars and gitleaks has 30,603. 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 (38,573 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose gitleaks if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.