head to head · open source
gitleaks vs earthly
gitleaks has 30,582 GitHub stars, 2,330 forks, 481 open issues and last shipped 6 days ago. earthly has 12,054 stars, 465 forks, 744 open issues and last shipped 8 days ago. gitleaks leads on adoption by 154% (30,582 vs 12,054 stars). gitleaks is written in Go under MIT; earthly is written in Go under MPL-2.0. gitleaks has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, earthly 4%. gitleaks was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (ci-cd, cicd, hacktoberfest), 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 | earthly | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 31K | ★ 12K |
| License | MIT | MPL-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-10-28 | 2026-10-26 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.3K | ⑂ 465 |
| 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 earthly if
- You want the earthly feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and earthly 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 earthly
Earthly Please note that Earthly is no longer actively maintained. Read more. It’s like Docker for builds 🔁 Repeatable Builds Write builds once, and run them anywhere – on your laptop, remote, and in any CI. ❤️ Super Simple Instantly recognizable syntax – like Dockerfile and Makefile had a baby. 🛠 Compatible with Every Language, Framework, and Build Tool If it runs on Linux, it runs on Earthly. 🏘 Great for Monorepos and Polyrepos Organize your build logic however makes the most sense for your project. 💨 Fast Builds Build caching and parallel execution makes builds fast automatically. ♻️ Reuse, Don't Repeat…
read the full earthly overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is gitleaks or earthly more popular?
gitleaks has 30,582 GitHub stars and earthly has 12,054. gitleaks has the larger community by that measure.
Are gitleaks and earthly free?
Both are open source. gitleaks is licensed under MIT and earthly under MPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between gitleaks and earthly?
gitleaks is written in Go and earthly 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, gitleaks or earthly?
Choose gitleaks if you want the larger community (30,582 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose earthly if its feature set, stack or MPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.