head to head · open source
garak vs toolhive
garak has 9,308 GitHub stars, 1,294 forks, 429 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. toolhive has 2,193 stars, 300 forks, 369 open issues and last shipped yesterday. garak leads on adoption by 324% (9,308 vs 2,193 stars). garak is written in Python under Apache-2.0; toolhive is written in Go under Apache-2.0. garak has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, toolhive 14%. toolhive was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (ai), 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
| garak | toolhive | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 9.3K | ★ 2.2K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-16 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.3K | ⑂ 300 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick garak if
- You weight community size — 9.3K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick toolhive if
- You want the toolhive 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 toolhive fits your workflow better
About garak
garak is a free, Apache 2.0 command line vulnerability scanner for large language models that probes generative AI systems for hallucination, data leakage, prompt injection, misinformation, toxicity generation, and jailbreaks, and it is aimed at security engineers, red teamers, and AI developers who need to test the models they ship.
read the full garak overview →
About toolhive
ToolHive is an open source, Apache 2.0 licensed platform written in Go for running and managing Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers. It lives in the AI and machine learning ecosystem, specifically MCP tooling and AI security and privacy. The project addresses the problem of exposing MCP servers to AI coding assistants and enterprise clients without broad local access or unmanaged behavior.
read the full toolhive overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is garak or toolhive more popular?
garak has 9,308 GitHub stars and toolhive has 2,193. garak has the larger community by that measure.
Are garak and toolhive free?
Both are open source. garak is licensed under Apache-2.0 and toolhive under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between garak and toolhive?
garak is written in Python and toolhive 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, garak or toolhive?
Choose garak if you want the larger community (9,308 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose toolhive if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.