head to head · open source
opa vs dep-scan
opa has 12,256 GitHub stars, 1,686 forks, 310 open issues and last shipped yesterday. dep-scan has 1,286 stars, 138 forks, 82 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. opa leads on adoption by 853% (12,256 vs 1,286 stars). opa is written in Go under Apache-2.0; dep-scan is written in Python under MIT. opa has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, dep-scan 11%. opa was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (compliance), 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
| opa | dep-scan | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 12K | ★ 1.3K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.7K | ⑂ 138 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick opa if
- You weight community size — 12K 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 dep-scan if
- You want the dep-scan feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and dep-scan fits your workflow better
About opa
Open Policy Agent (OPA) is an open source, general purpose policy engine that enables unified, context aware policy enforcement across the entire stack. It lives in the cloud native ecosystem as a graduated project in the Cloud Native Computing Foundation landscape, and it is written in Go under the Apache 2.0 license. Policy is expressed declaratively in the Rego language, and the project ships alongside a CLI, an HTTP REST API, a Go SDK, and editor tooling rather than as a single binary alone. The repository has been active for roughly eleven years, with 12,234 stars, 1,679 forks, and a last push dated 15 Septe…
About dep-scan
OWASP dep scan is a next generation security and risk audit tool that checks project dependencies for known vulnerabilities, advisories and license limitations, built for developers and security teams that audit local repositories or container images.
read the full dep-scan overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is opa or dep-scan more popular?
opa has 12,256 GitHub stars and dep-scan has 1,286. opa has the larger community by that measure.
Are opa and dep-scan free?
Both are open source. opa is licensed under Apache-2.0 and dep-scan under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between opa and dep-scan?
opa is written in Go and dep-scan in Python. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, opa or dep-scan?
Choose opa if you want the larger community (12,256 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose dep-scan if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.