head to head · open source
gitleaks vs Archon
gitleaks has 30,603 GitHub stars, 2,330 forks, 481 open issues and last shipped 6 days ago. Archon has 23,807 stars, 3,518 forks, 321 open issues and last shipped yesterday. gitleaks leads on adoption by 29% (30,603 vs 23,807 stars). gitleaks is written in Go under MIT; Archon is written in TypeScript under MIT. gitleaks has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, Archon 15%. Archon was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (cli), 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
| gitleaks | Archon | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 31K | ★ 24K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Go | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-10-28 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.3K | ⑂ 3.5K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick gitleaks if
- You weight community size — 31K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Archon if
- You want the Archon feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Archon fits your workflow better
About gitleaks
Gitleaks [!WARNING] Gitleaks is feature complete. I'm not merging new features into Gitleaks. Future releases will be security patches only. I'm shifting my focus to Betterleaks [license]: ./LICENSE [badge license]: [go docs badge]: [go docs]: [badge build]: [build]: [go report card badge]: [go report card]: [dockerhub]: [dockerhub badge]: [gitleaks action]: [gitleaks badge]: [![GitHub Action Test][badge build]][build] [![Docker Hub][dockerhub badge]][dockerhub] [![Gitleaks Action][gitleaks badge]][gitleaks action] [![GoDoc][go docs badge]][go docs] [![GoReportCard][go report card badge]][go report card]…
read the full gitleaks overview →
About Archon
Archon The first open source harness builder for AI coding. Make AI coding deterministic and repeatable. Archon is a workflow engine for AI coding agents. Define your development processes as YAML workflows planning, implementation, validation, code review, PR creation and run them reliably across all your projects. Like what Dockerfiles did for infrastructure and GitHub Actions did for CI/CD Archon does for AI coding workflows. Think n8n, but for software development. Why Archon? When you ask an AI agent to "fix this bug", what happens depends on the model's mood. It might skip planning. It might forget to run…
read the full Archon overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is gitleaks or Archon more popular?
gitleaks has 30,603 GitHub stars and Archon has 23,807. gitleaks has the larger community by that measure.
Are gitleaks and Archon free?
Both are open source. gitleaks is licensed under MIT and Archon under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between gitleaks and Archon?
gitleaks is written in Go and Archon 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, gitleaks or Archon?
Choose gitleaks if you want the larger community (30,603 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Archon if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.