head to head · open source
ansible vs gitleaks
ansible has 70,719 GitHub stars, 24,336 forks, 837 open issues and last shipped yesterday. gitleaks has 29,368 stars, 2,237 forks, 481 open issues and last shipped 10 days ago. ansible leads on adoption by 141% (70,719 vs 29,368 stars). ansible is written in Python under GPL-3.0; gitleaks is written in Go under MIT. ansible has attracted 34% as many forks as stars, gitleaks 8%. ansible 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
| ansible | gitleaks | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 71K | ★ 29K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-09 |
| Forks | ⑂ 24K | ⑂ 2.2K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick ansible if
- You weight community size — 71K stars and counting
- You want the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- 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 ansible
Ansible is a radically simple, agentless IT automation platform, written in Python and licensed under GPL 3.0, that handles configuration management, application deployment, cloud provisioning, ad hoc task execution, network automation, and multi node orchestration for operators, developers, and network and cloud teams who manage machines over plain SSH.
read the full ansible overview →
About gitleaks
Gitleaks is an MIT licensed, Go based command line tool that detects hardcoded secrets such as passwords, API keys, and tokens in git repositories, files, and standard input, and it serves developers and security teams that need to keep credentials out of source control.
read the full gitleaks overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is ansible or gitleaks more popular?
ansible has 70,719 GitHub stars and gitleaks has 29,368. ansible has the larger community by that measure.
Are ansible and gitleaks free?
Both are open source. ansible is licensed under GPL-3.0 and gitleaks under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between ansible and gitleaks?
ansible is written in Python 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, ansible or gitleaks?
Choose ansible if you want the larger community (70,719 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose gitleaks if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.