head to head · open source
gitleaks vs nuke
gitleaks has 29,368 GitHub stars, 2,237 forks, 481 open issues and last shipped 9 days ago. nuke has 3,753 stars, 457 forks, 121 open issues and last shipped 10 months ago. gitleaks leads on adoption by 683% (29,368 vs 3,753 stars). gitleaks is written in Go under MIT; nuke is written in C# under MIT. gitleaks has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, nuke 12%. 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 | nuke | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 29K | ★ 3.8K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Go | C# |
| Last push | 2026-09-09 | 2025-12-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.2K | ⑂ 457 |
| 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 nuke if
- You want the nuke feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches C#
- You evaluated both and nuke 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 nuke
The AKEless Build System for C /.NET Table of Contents Elevator Pitch Example Build Status Technology Sponsors Elevator Pitch Solid and scalable CI/CD pipelines are an essential pillar for being competitive and creating a great product. But why are most of us a little afraid of touching YAML files and don't even dare to look at build scripts? Much of this is because C developers are spoiled with a great language and smart IDEs, and they don't like missing their buddy for code completion, ease of debugging, refactorings, and code formatting. NUKE brings your build automation to an even level with every other .NET …
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Frequently asked questions
Is gitleaks or nuke more popular?
gitleaks has 29,368 GitHub stars and nuke has 3,753. gitleaks has the larger community by that measure.
Are gitleaks and nuke free?
Both are open source. gitleaks is licensed under MIT and nuke under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between gitleaks and nuke?
gitleaks is written in Go and nuke in C#. 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 nuke?
Choose gitleaks if you want the larger community (29,368 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose nuke if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.