head to head · open source
kubernetes vs trivy
kubernetes has 127,813 GitHub stars, 44,561 forks, 3,072 open issues and last shipped yesterday. trivy has 37,975 stars, 696 forks, 269 open issues and last shipped yesterday. kubernetes leads on adoption by 237% (127,813 vs 37,975 stars). kubernetes is written in Go under Apache-2.0; trivy is written in Go under Apache-2.0. kubernetes has attracted 35% as many forks as stars, trivy 2%. kubernetes was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (containers, go, 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
| kubernetes | trivy | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 128K | ★ 38K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 45K | ⑂ 696 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick kubernetes if
- You weight community size — 128K 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 trivy if
- You want the trivy feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and trivy fits your workflow better
About kubernetes
Kubernetes (K8s) is an open source, Apache 2.0 licensed system for managing containerized applications across multiple hosts, hosted by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation and aimed at teams who deploy, maintain and scale container packaged and microservices oriented workloads in production.
read the full kubernetes overview →
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 →
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Frequently asked questions
Is kubernetes or trivy more popular?
kubernetes has 127,813 GitHub stars and trivy has 37,975. kubernetes has the larger community by that measure.
Are kubernetes and trivy free?
Both are open source. kubernetes is licensed under Apache-2.0 and trivy under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between kubernetes and trivy?
kubernetes is written in Go and trivy in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, kubernetes or trivy?
Choose kubernetes if you want the larger community (127,813 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose trivy if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.