head to head · open source
gitleaks vs nuke
gitleaks has 30,582 GitHub stars, 2,330 forks, 481 open issues and last shipped 6 days ago. nuke has 3,751 stars, 455 forks, 121 open issues and last shipped 11 months ago. gitleaks leads on adoption by 715% (30,582 vs 3,751 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| gitleaks | nuke | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 31K | ★ 3.8K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Go | C# |
| Last push | 2026-10-28 | 2025-12-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.3K | ⑂ 455 |
| 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 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 [!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 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…
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 nuke more popular?
gitleaks has 30,582 GitHub stars and nuke has 3,751. 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 (30,582 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose nuke if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.