head to head · open source
gokey vs pass-import
gokey has 2,440 GitHub stars, 110 forks, 8 open issues and last shipped 4 months ago. pass-import has 916 stars, 99 forks, 22 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. gokey leads on adoption by 166% (2,440 vs 916 stars). gokey is written in Go under BSD-3-Clause; pass-import is written in Python under GPL-3.0. gokey has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, pass-import 11%. pass-import was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (password-manager, password-store), 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
| gokey | pass-import | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 2.4K | ★ 916 |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | Python |
| Last push | 2026-07-10 | 2026-11-10 |
| Forks | ⑂ 110 | ⑂ 99 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick gokey if
- You weight community size — 2.4K stars and counting
- You want the BSD-3-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick pass-import if
- You want the pass-import feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and pass-import fits your workflow better
About gokey
gokey A simple vaultless password manager in Go gokey is a password manager, which does not require a password vault. Instead of storing your passwords in a vault it derives your password on the fly from your master password and supplied realm string (for example, resource URL). This way you do not have to manage, backup or sync your password vault (or trust its management to a third party) as your passwords are available immediately anywhere. example options o by default gokey outputs generated data to stdout P path to master password file which will be used to generate other passwords/keys or to encrypt seed…
read the full gokey overview →
About pass-import
[ ][github link] pass import [![][workflow]][action] [![][gitlab]][gitlab link] [![][coverage]][coverage link] [![][quality]][quality link] [![ ][release]][release link] A [pass] extension for importing data from most existing password managers Description pass import is a password store extension allowing you to import your password database to a password store repository conveniently. It natively supports import from 63 different password managers. More manager support can easily be added. Passwords are imported into the existing default password store, therefore the password store must have been initialized…
read the full pass-import overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is gokey or pass-import more popular?
gokey has 2,440 GitHub stars and pass-import has 916. gokey has the larger community by that measure.
Are gokey and pass-import free?
Both are open source. gokey is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and pass-import under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between gokey and pass-import?
gokey is written in Go and pass-import in Python. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, gokey or pass-import?
Choose gokey if you want the larger community (2,440 stars) or its BSD-3-Clause licence terms. Choose pass-import if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.