head to head · open source
gitleaks vs atom
gitleaks has 29,368 GitHub stars, 2,237 forks, 481 open issues and last shipped 9 days ago. atom has 899 stars, 94 forks, 2 open issues and last shipped yesterday. gitleaks leads on adoption by 3,167% (29,368 vs 899 stars). gitleaks is written in Go under MIT; atom is written in Python under AGPL-3.0. gitleaks has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, atom 10%. atom 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
| gitleaks | atom | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 29K | ★ 899 |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-09 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.2K | ⑂ 94 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick gitleaks if
- You weight community size — 29K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick atom if
- You want the atom feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and atom fits your workflow better
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 →
About atom
ATOM Platform The governed agent platform — autonomy, earned. 88% of AI agent pilots never reach production. Atom is built for the other path. Industry figure (Turion 2026). Atom makes no claims about its own deployments. What is Atom? Atom is an open source, self hosted AI agent workforce — a team of specialty agents (sales, support, finance, engineering) that your people delegate to in plain language. Where other platforms sell agent capability , Atom sells agent accountability : autonomy that is earned through verified outcomes, executed inside a deterministic safety net, on your hardware. Agents that earn tru…
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Frequently asked questions
Is gitleaks or atom more popular?
gitleaks has 29,368 GitHub stars and atom has 899. gitleaks has the larger community by that measure.
Are gitleaks and atom free?
Both are open source. gitleaks is licensed under MIT and atom under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between gitleaks and atom?
gitleaks is written in Go and atom in Python. 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 atom?
Choose gitleaks if you want the larger community (29,368 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose atom if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.