head to head · open source
jenkins vs kics
jenkins has 26,556 GitHub stars, 9,835 forks, 3,610 open issues and last shipped yesterday. kics has 2,700 stars, 381 forks, 312 open issues and last shipped yesterday. jenkins leads on adoption by 884% (26,556 vs 2,700 stars). jenkins is written in Java under MIT; kics is written in Open Policy Agent under Apache-2.0. jenkins has attracted 37% as many forks as stars, kics 14%. jenkins was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (hacktoberfest), 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
| jenkins | kics | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 27K | ★ 2.7K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Java | Open Policy Agent |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.8K | ⑂ 381 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick jenkins if
- You weight community size — 27K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick kics if
- You want the kics feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Open Policy Agent
- You evaluated both and kics fits your workflow better
About jenkins
Jenkins is an open source automation server built with Java and released under the MIT license. It lives in the continuous integration and continuous delivery ecosystem, where it has served as a central automation hub for roughly sixteen years. The project is developed in the open on GitHub, where it has accumulated 26,546 stars and 9,833 forks, and it is distributed through the official jenkins.io website alongside documentation, plugin listings, and release notes. Two release lines are maintained: a weekly line that carries all new features, improvements, and bug fixes, and a Long Term Support line that receive…
read the full jenkins overview →
About kics
KICS is an open source security scanner for infrastructure as code projects. The project name stands for Keeping Infrastructure as Code Secure, and the repository describes it as a tool for finding security vulnerabilities, compliance issues, and infrastructure misconfigurations early in the development cycle. It is published by Checkmarx under the Apache 2.0 license and is associated with the cloud native, DevSecOps, and application security ecosystems. The repository also lists topics such as infrastructure as code, security, and vulnerability detection.
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Frequently asked questions
Is jenkins or kics more popular?
jenkins has 26,556 GitHub stars and kics has 2,700. jenkins has the larger community by that measure.
Are jenkins and kics free?
Both are open source. jenkins is licensed under MIT and kics under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between jenkins and kics?
jenkins is written in Java and kics in Open Policy Agent. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, jenkins or kics?
Choose jenkins if you want the larger community (26,556 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose kics if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.