head to head · open source
gitleaks vs layer5
gitleaks has 29,368 GitHub stars, 2,237 forks, 481 open issues and last shipped 10 days ago. layer5 has 1,124 stars, 1,631 forks, 164 open issues and last shipped yesterday. gitleaks leads on adoption by 2,513% (29,368 vs 1,124 stars). gitleaks is written in Go under MIT; layer5 is written in JavaScript under Apache-2.0. gitleaks has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, layer5 145%. layer5 was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (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.
← all 13541 open source comparisons
Side by side
| gitleaks | layer5 | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 29K | ★ 1.1K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-09 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.2K | ⑂ 1.6K |
| 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 layer5 if
- You want the layer5 feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and layer5 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 layer5
Layer5 is an open source, Apache 2.0 licensed suite of cloud native infrastructure management projects — Meshery, Kanvas, Nighthawk, the Meshery Catalog, Layer5 Academy, Sistent and related components — aimed at developers, platform operators and teams running Kubernetes and its workloads.
read the full layer5 overview →
More in Infrastructure & Operations
Related comparisons
More Orchestration & Scheduling projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Orchestration & Scheduling field.
Frequently asked questions
Is gitleaks or layer5 more popular?
gitleaks has 29,368 GitHub stars and layer5 has 1,124. gitleaks has the larger community by that measure.
Are gitleaks and layer5 free?
Both are open source. gitleaks is licensed under MIT and layer5 under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between gitleaks and layer5?
gitleaks is written in Go and layer5 in JavaScript. 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 layer5?
Choose gitleaks if you want the larger community (29,368 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose layer5 if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.