head to head · open source
gokey vs passwall-server
gokey has 2,440 GitHub stars, 110 forks, 8 open issues and last shipped 4 months ago. passwall-server has 768 stars, 100 forks, 14 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. gokey leads on adoption by 218% (2,440 vs 768 stars). gokey is written in Go under BSD-3-Clause; passwall-server is written in Go under AGPL-3.0. gokey has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, passwall-server 13%. passwall-server was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (password-manager), 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 | passwall-server | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 2.4K | ★ 768 |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-07-10 | 2026-10-10 |
| Forks | ⑂ 110 | ⑂ 100 |
| 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 passwall-server if
- You want the passwall-server feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and passwall-server 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 passwall-server
PassWall Server PassWall Server is the core backend for open source password manager PassWall platform. Using this server, you can safely store your passwords and access them from anywhere. 📋 Table of Contents Features Quick Start Development Makefile Commands Docker Deployment Environment Variables API Documentation Security Support ✨ Features 🔐 Secure Password Storage AES GCM encryption 🌐 RESTful API Well documented API endpoints 🐳 Docker Support Easy deployment with Docker Compose 🔄 Auto Migration Database schema management 📦 Multiple Storage Types Passwords, credit cards, bank accounts, notes, emails…
read the full passwall-server overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is gokey or passwall-server more popular?
gokey has 2,440 GitHub stars and passwall-server has 768. gokey has the larger community by that measure.
Are gokey and passwall-server free?
Both are open source. gokey is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and passwall-server under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between gokey and passwall-server?
gokey is written in Go and passwall-server 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, gokey or passwall-server?
Choose gokey if you want the larger community (2,440 stars) or its BSD-3-Clause licence terms. Choose passwall-server if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.