head to head · open source
tfsec vs flashlight
tfsec has 7,038 GitHub stars, 558 forks, 18 open issues and last shipped 6 months ago. flashlight has 1,605 stars, 48 forks, 29 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. tfsec leads on adoption by 339% (7,038 vs 1,605 stars). tfsec is written in Go under MIT; flashlight is written in TypeScript under MIT. tfsec has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, flashlight 3%. flashlight 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
| tfsec | flashlight | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 7.0K | ★ 1.6K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Go | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-03-25 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 558 | ⑂ 48 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick tfsec if
- You weight community size — 7.0K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick flashlight if
- You want the flashlight feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and flashlight fits your workflow better
About tfsec
tfsec is a static analysis security scanner for Terraform code, written in Go and released under the MIT license. It lives in the infrastructure as code and DevSecOps ecosystem, alongside tools such as linters and CI scanners. The project is now part of Trivy, Aqua Security's broader open source security scanner, and its Terraform scanning engine forms the foundation of Trivy's IaC and misconfiguration scanning capabilities. The repository remains available, but engineering attention is directed at Trivy going forward.
read the full tfsec overview →
About flashlight
Flashlight is an open source Android mobile performance audit tool written in TypeScript and licensed under MIT. It is positioned as a Lighthouse for Mobile tool, and it gives Android applications a performance score by aggregating different metrics. The project lives in the Android mobile ecosystem and covers native Android apps, React Native apps, and Flutter apps.
read the full flashlight overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is tfsec or flashlight more popular?
tfsec has 7,038 GitHub stars and flashlight has 1,605. tfsec has the larger community by that measure.
Are tfsec and flashlight free?
Both are open source. tfsec is licensed under MIT and flashlight under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between tfsec and flashlight?
tfsec is written in Go and flashlight in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, tfsec or flashlight?
Choose tfsec if you want the larger community (7,038 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose flashlight if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.