head to head · open source
thc-hydra vs dockle
thc-hydra has 12,470 GitHub stars, 2,698 forks, 50 open issues and last shipped 8 days ago. dockle has 3,299 stars, 171 forks, 53 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. thc-hydra leads on adoption by 278% (12,470 vs 3,299 stars). thc-hydra is written in C under AGPL-3.0; dockle is written in Go under Apache-2.0. thc-hydra has attracted 22% as many forks as stars, dockle 5%. thc-hydra 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
| thc-hydra | dockle | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 12K | ★ 3.3K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | C | Go |
| Last push | 2026-10-30 | 2026-08-10 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.7K | ⑂ 171 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick thc-hydra if
- You weight community size — 12K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick dockle if
- You want the dockle feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and dockle fits your workflow better
About thc-hydra
H Y D R A (c) 2001 2023 by van Hauser / THC Many modules were written by David (dot) Maciejak @ gmail (dot) com BFG code by Jan Dlabal Licensed under AGPLv3 (see LICENSE file) Please do not use in military or secret service organizations, or for illegal purposes. (This is the wish of the author and non binding. Many people working in these organizations do not care for laws and ethics anyway. You are not one of the "good" ones if you ignore this.) NOTE: No, this is not meant to be a markdown doc! old school! Hydra in the most current GitHub state can be directly downloaded via Docker: INTRODUCTION Number one of…
read the full thc-hydra overview →
About dockle
Dockle Container Image Linter for Security, Helping build the Best Practice Docker Image, Easy to start Dockle helps you: 1. Build Best Practice Docker images 2. Build secure Docker images Checkpoints includes CIS Benchmarks See Installation and Common Examples Checkpoints Comparison TOC Features Comparison Installation Homebrew (Mac OS X / Linux and WSL) RHEL/CentOS Debian/Ubuntu Arch Linux Windows Microsoft PowerShell 7 Binary asdf mise From source Use Docker Quick Start Basic Docker Checkpoint Summary Common Examples Scan an image Scan an image file Get or Save the results as JSON Get or Save the results as…
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Frequently asked questions
Is thc-hydra or dockle more popular?
thc-hydra has 12,470 GitHub stars and dockle has 3,299. thc-hydra has the larger community by that measure.
Are thc-hydra and dockle free?
Both are open source. thc-hydra is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and dockle under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between thc-hydra and dockle?
thc-hydra is written in C and dockle 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, thc-hydra or dockle?
Choose thc-hydra if you want the larger community (12,470 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose dockle if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.