head to head · open source
gitleaks vs YaraHunter
gitleaks has 30,603 GitHub stars, 2,330 forks, 481 open issues and last shipped 6 days ago. YaraHunter has 1,319 stars, 155 forks, 6 open issues and last shipped 8 months ago. gitleaks leads on adoption by 2,220% (30,603 vs 1,319 stars). gitleaks is written in Go under MIT; YaraHunter is written in Go under Apache-2.0. gitleaks has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, YaraHunter 12%. 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, devsecops, 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 | YaraHunter | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 31K | ★ 1.3K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-10-28 | 2026-03-07 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.3K | ⑂ 155 |
| 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 YaraHunter if
- You want the YaraHunter feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and YaraHunter 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 YaraHunter
YaraHunter Deepfence YaraHunter scans container images, running Docker containers, and filesystems to find indicators of malware. It uses a YARA ruleset to identify resources that match known malware signatures, and may indicate that the container or filesystem has been compromised. YaraHunter can be used in the following ways: At build and test : scan build artifacts in the CI/CD pipeline, reporting on possible indicators of malware At rest : scan local container images, for example, before they are deployed, to verify they do not contain malware At runtime : scan running docker containers, for example, if you…
read the full YaraHunter overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is gitleaks or YaraHunter more popular?
gitleaks has 30,603 GitHub stars and YaraHunter has 1,319. gitleaks has the larger community by that measure.
Are gitleaks and YaraHunter free?
Both are open source. gitleaks is licensed under MIT and YaraHunter under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between gitleaks and YaraHunter?
gitleaks is written in Go and YaraHunter 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 YaraHunter?
Choose gitleaks if you want the larger community (30,603 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose YaraHunter if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.