head to head · open source
gokey vs rowel
gokey has 2,437 GitHub stars, 109 forks, 8 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. rowel has 944 stars, 80 forks, 24 open issues and last shipped today. gokey leads on adoption by 158% (2,437 vs 944 stars). gokey is written in Go under BSD-3-Clause; rowel is written in TypeScript under GPL-3.0. gokey has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, rowel 8%. rowel 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 | rowel | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 2.4K | ★ 944 |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-07-10 | 2026-09-25 |
| Forks | ⑂ 109 | ⑂ 80 |
| 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 rowel if
- You want the rowel feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and rowel 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 rowel
Rowel is a free, offline first password manager for macOS, Windows and Linux that keeps logins, credit card details and secure notes in a locally stored, encrypted SQLite vault, built for individuals who would rather own their secrets than store them in a hosted service.
read the full rowel overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is gokey or rowel more popular?
gokey has 2,437 GitHub stars and rowel has 944. gokey has the larger community by that measure.
Are gokey and rowel free?
Both are open source. gokey is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and rowel under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between gokey and rowel?
gokey is written in Go and rowel in TypeScript. 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 rowel?
Choose gokey if you want the larger community (2,437 stars) or its BSD-3-Clause licence terms. Choose rowel if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.