head to head · open source
Harness vs DependencyCheck
Harness has 38,798 GitHub stars, 3,451 forks, 106 open issues and last shipped yesterday. DependencyCheck has 7,757 stars, 1,432 forks, 195 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Harness leads on adoption by 400% (38,798 vs 7,757 stars). Harness is written in Go under Apache-2.0; DependencyCheck is written in Java under Apache-2.0. Harness has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, DependencyCheck 18%. Harness was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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
| Harness | DependencyCheck | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 39K | ★ 7.8K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Java |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.5K | ⑂ 1.4K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Harness if
- You weight community size — 39K 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 DependencyCheck if
- You want the DependencyCheck feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and DependencyCheck fits your workflow better
About Harness
Harness Harness Open Source is an open source development platform packed with the power of code hosting, automated DevOps pipelines, hosted development environments (Gitspaces), and artifact registries. Overview Harness Open source is an open source development platform packed with the power of code hosting, automated DevOps pipelines, Gitspaces, and artifact registries. Running Harness locally The latest publicly released docker image can be found on harness/harness. To install Harness yourself, simply run the command below. Once the container is up, you can visit in your browser. The Harness image uses a…
read the full Harness overview →
About DependencyCheck
Dependency Check Dependency Check is a Software Composition Analysis (SCA) tool that attempts to detect publicly disclosed vulnerabilities contained within a project's dependencies. It does this by determining if there is a Common Platform Enumeration (CPE) identifier for a given dependency. If found, it will generate a report linking to the associated CVE entries. Documentation and links to production binary releases can be found on the github pages. Additionally, more information about the architecture and ways to extend dependency check can be found on the [wiki]. Notice This product uses the NVD API but is…
read the full DependencyCheck overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Harness or DependencyCheck more popular?
Harness has 38,798 GitHub stars and DependencyCheck has 7,757. Harness has the larger community by that measure.
Are Harness and DependencyCheck free?
Both are open source. Harness is licensed under Apache-2.0 and DependencyCheck under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Harness and DependencyCheck?
Harness is written in Go and DependencyCheck in Java. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Harness or DependencyCheck?
Choose Harness if you want the larger community (38,798 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose DependencyCheck if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.