head to head · open source
gokey vs Strongbox
gokey has 2,437 GitHub stars, 109 forks, 8 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. Strongbox has 1,465 stars, 126 forks, 230 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. gokey leads on adoption by 66% (2,437 vs 1,465 stars). gokey is written in Go under BSD-3-Clause; Strongbox is written in Objective-C under AGPL-3.0. gokey has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, Strongbox 9%. Strongbox was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 4 topic tags (password-generator, password-manager, password-store, password-vault), 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 | Strongbox | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 2.4K | ★ 1.5K |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | Objective-C |
| Last push | 2026-07-10 | 2026-07-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 109 | ⑂ 126 |
| 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 Strongbox if
- You want the Strongbox feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Objective-C
- You evaluated both and Strongbox 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 Strongbox
Strongbox is an AGPL 3.0 licensed, Objective C password manager built natively for iOS and macOS that opens and writes the portable KeePass and Password Safe file formats, and it is aimed at Apple users who already keep their secrets in an open vault file as well as at developers and security reviewers who want to read the cryptography behind the app.
read the full Strongbox overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is gokey or Strongbox more popular?
gokey has 2,437 GitHub stars and Strongbox has 1,465. gokey has the larger community by that measure.
Are gokey and Strongbox free?
Both are open source. gokey is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and Strongbox under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between gokey and Strongbox?
gokey is written in Go and Strongbox in Objective-C. 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 Strongbox?
Choose gokey if you want the larger community (2,437 stars) or its BSD-3-Clause licence terms. Choose Strongbox if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.