head to head · open source
kyverno vs Harden-Windows-Security
kyverno has 8,316 GitHub stars, 1,696 forks, 703 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Harden-Windows-Security has 4,831 stars, 348 forks, 5 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. kyverno leads on adoption by 72% (8,316 vs 4,831 stars). kyverno is written in Go under Apache-2.0; Harden-Windows-Security is written in C# under MIT. kyverno has attracted 20% as many forks as stars, Harden-Windows-Security 7%. kyverno was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (compliance), 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
| kyverno | Harden-Windows-Security | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 8.3K | ★ 4.8K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | C# |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-11-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.7K | ⑂ 348 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick kyverno if
- You weight community size — 8.3K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Harden-Windows-Security if
- You want the Harden-Windows-Security feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches C#
- You evaluated both and Harden-Windows-Security fits your workflow better
About kyverno
Kyverno Cloud Native Policy Management 🎉 📑 Table of Contents About Kyverno Non Goals Documentation Demos & Tutorials Popular Use Cases Explore the Policy Library Getting Help Contributing Software Bill of Materials Contributors License About Kyverno Kyverno is a Kubernetes native policy engine designed for platform engineering teams. It enables security, compliance, automation, and governance through policy as code. Kyverno can: Validate, mutate, generate, and clean up resources using Kubernetes admission controls and background scans. Verify container image signatures for supply chain security. Operate with…
read the full kyverno overview →
About Harden-Windows-Security
Harden Windows Security A New Threat to Malware Harden Windows Safely, Securely, Only With Official Microsoft Methods How To Use Related Trust Support Security Recommendations Resources License Wiki Basic FAQs Roadmap Donation [!IMPORTANT]\ Here are Quick Access Points to Important Sections of this Repository Harden System Security App AppControl Manager App Application Control for Business Resources [!NOTE]\ This repository only uses the features that have already been implemented by Microsoft in Windows OS to fine tune it towards the highest security and locked down state, without relying on any 3rd party…
read the full Harden-Windows-Security overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is kyverno or Harden-Windows-Security more popular?
kyverno has 8,316 GitHub stars and Harden-Windows-Security has 4,831. kyverno has the larger community by that measure.
Are kyverno and Harden-Windows-Security free?
Both are open source. kyverno is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Harden-Windows-Security under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between kyverno and Harden-Windows-Security?
kyverno is written in Go and Harden-Windows-Security in C#. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, kyverno or Harden-Windows-Security?
Choose kyverno if you want the larger community (8,316 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Harden-Windows-Security if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.