head to head · open source
gokey vs Purse
gokey has 2,437 GitHub stars, 109 forks, 8 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. Purse has 615 stars, 43 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. gokey leads on adoption by 296% (2,437 vs 615 stars). gokey is written in Go under BSD-3-Clause; Purse is written in Shell under MIT. gokey has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, Purse 7%. Purse 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 | Purse | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 2.4K | ★ 615 |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | MIT |
| Written in | Go | Shell |
| Last push | 2026-07-10 | 2026-07-26 |
| Forks | ⑂ 109 | ⑂ 43 |
| 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 Purse if
- You want the Purse feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Shell
- You evaluated both and Purse fits your workflow better
About gokey
gokey is a vaultless password and key generator written in Go that derives passwords and cryptographic private keys on demand from a master password or a seed file instead of storing them in a vault, aimed at developers and system administrators who want deterministic credentials available anywhere without managing, backing up, or syncing a password store.
read the full gokey overview →
About Purse
Purse is a Bash script that stores passwords and secrets in GnuPG encrypted files, unlocking them with a YubiKey instead of a passphrase, for people who manage their own credentials on the command line.
read the full Purse overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is gokey or Purse more popular?
gokey has 2,437 GitHub stars and Purse has 615. gokey has the larger community by that measure.
Are gokey and Purse free?
Both are open source. gokey is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and Purse under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between gokey and Purse?
gokey is written in Go and Purse in Shell. 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 Purse?
Choose gokey if you want the larger community (2,437 stars) or its BSD-3-Clause licence terms. Choose Purse if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.