head to head · open source
trivy vs headlamp
trivy has 37,986 GitHub stars, 695 forks, 269 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. headlamp has 7,310 stars, 1,112 forks, 1,422 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. trivy leads on adoption by 420% (37,986 vs 7,310 stars). trivy is written in Go under Apache-2.0; headlamp is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. trivy has attracted 2% as many forks as stars, headlamp 15%. trivy was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (kubernetes), 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
| trivy | headlamp | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 38K | ★ 7.3K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 695 | ⑂ 1.1K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick trivy if
- You weight community size — 38K 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 headlamp if
- You want the headlamp feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and headlamp fits your workflow better
About trivy
Trivy is an open source security scanner written in Go and released under the Apache 2.0 license. It is an Aqua Security open source project, hosted at trivy.dev, and it lives in the cloud native and DevSecOps ecosystem alongside container runtimes, Kubernetes clusters, and infrastructure as code tooling. The design separates two ideas: scanners, which describe the classes of security issue Trivy looks for, and targets, which describe where it looks. The README presents the project as a comprehensive and versatile scanner, and the topic list — containers, devsecops, docker, iac, infrastructure as code, kubernetes…
read the full trivy overview →
About headlamp
Headlamp is an Apache 2.0 licensed, vendor independent Kubernetes web UI written in TypeScript that runs either inside a cluster or locally as a desktop application, and it is built for platform engineers, cluster operators, and developers who need to inspect and change Kubernetes resources through a graphical interface.
read the full headlamp overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is trivy or headlamp more popular?
trivy has 37,986 GitHub stars and headlamp has 7,310. trivy has the larger community by that measure.
Are trivy and headlamp free?
Both are open source. trivy is licensed under Apache-2.0 and headlamp under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between trivy and headlamp?
trivy is written in Go and headlamp 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, trivy or headlamp?
Choose trivy if you want the larger community (37,986 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose headlamp if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.