head to head · open source
gitleaks vs bolt
gitleaks has 30,603 GitHub stars, 2,330 forks, 481 open issues and last shipped 6 days ago. bolt has 558 stars, 224 forks, 101 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. gitleaks leads on adoption by 5,384% (30,603 vs 558 stars). gitleaks is written in Go under MIT; bolt is written in Ruby under Apache-2.0. gitleaks has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, bolt 40%. gitleaks 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 | bolt | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 31K | ★ 558 |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Ruby |
| Last push | 2026-10-28 | 2026-09-11 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.3K | ⑂ 224 |
| 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 bolt if
- You want the bolt feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Ruby
- You evaluated both and bolt 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 bolt
Bolt is an open source orchestration tool that automates the manual work it takes to maintain your infrastructure. Use Bolt to automate tasks that you perform on an as needed basis or as part of a greater orchestration workflow. For example, you can use Bolt to patch and update systems, troubleshoot servers, deploy applications, or stop and restart services. Bolt can be installed on your local workstation and connects directly to remote targets with SSH or WinRM, so you are not required to install any agent software. Bring order to the chaos with orchestration Run simple plans to rid yourself of the headaches of…
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Frequently asked questions
Is gitleaks or bolt more popular?
gitleaks has 30,603 GitHub stars and bolt has 558. gitleaks has the larger community by that measure.
Are gitleaks and bolt free?
Both are open source. gitleaks is licensed under MIT and bolt under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between gitleaks and bolt?
gitleaks is written in Go and bolt in Ruby. 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 bolt?
Choose gitleaks if you want the larger community (30,603 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose bolt if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.