head to head · open source
kyverno vs ossec-hids
kyverno has 8,168 GitHub stars, 1,602 forks, 703 open issues and last shipped today. ossec-hids has 5,057 stars, 1,074 forks, 125 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. kyverno leads on adoption by 62% (8,168 vs 5,057 stars). kyverno is written in Go under Apache-2.0; ossec-hids is written in C under GPL-2.0. kyverno has attracted 20% as many forks as stars, ossec-hids 21%. kyverno was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (compliance, security), 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 | ossec-hids | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 8.2K | ★ 5.1K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | C |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.6K | ⑂ 1.1K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick kyverno if
- You weight community size — 8.2K 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 ossec-hids if
- You want the ossec-hids feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C
- You evaluated both and ossec-hids fits your workflow better
About kyverno
Kyverno is a Kubernetes native policy engine that lets platform engineering teams define security, compliance, automation, and governance rules as policy as code, using the Kubernetes tools they already run rather than a separate policy language.
read the full kyverno overview →
About ossec-hids
OSSEC is an open source host based intrusion detection system written in C and released under the GNU General Public License version 2. It combines several security functions into one platform: log analysis, file integrity checking, policy monitoring, rootkit detection, real time alerting, and active response. The project describes itself as a full platform to monitor and control systems, mixing the aspects of HIDS, log monitoring, and SIM/SIEM into a single solution. It lives in the security and compliance tooling ecosystem, with topics spanning intrusion detection, file integrity management, log analysis, PCI D…
read the full ossec-hids overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is kyverno or ossec-hids more popular?
kyverno has 8,168 GitHub stars and ossec-hids has 5,057. kyverno has the larger community by that measure.
Are kyverno and ossec-hids free?
Both are open source. kyverno is licensed under Apache-2.0 and ossec-hids under GPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between kyverno and ossec-hids?
kyverno is written in Go and ossec-hids 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 ossec-hids?
Choose kyverno if you want the larger community (8,168 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose ossec-hids if its feature set, stack or GPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.