head to head · open source
lighthouse vs Harden-Windows-Security
lighthouse has 30,785 GitHub stars, 9,765 forks, 470 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Harden-Windows-Security has 4,747 stars, 337 forks, 5 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. lighthouse leads on adoption by 549% (30,785 vs 4,747 stars). lighthouse is written in JavaScript under Apache-2.0; Harden-Windows-Security is written in C# under MIT. lighthouse has attracted 32% as many forks as stars, Harden-Windows-Security 7%. lighthouse was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (audit), 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.
← all 8884 open source comparisons
Side by side
| lighthouse | Harden-Windows-Security | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 31K | ★ 4.7K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | JavaScript | C# |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-15 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.8K | ⑂ 337 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick lighthouse if
- You weight community size — 31K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Harden-Windows-Security if
- You want the Harden-Windows-Security feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches C#
- You evaluated both and Harden-Windows-Security fits your workflow better
About lighthouse
Lighthouse is an open source, automated auditing tool for web applications and web pages. It analyzes a target URL and collects modern performance metrics alongside insights into developer best practices, producing a structured report that scores and explains what it finds. The project lives in the JavaScript ecosystem, is distributed under the Apache 2.0 license, and is maintained under the GoogleChrome organization. It has been developed for roughly eleven years and is published to npm as the lighthouse package.
read the full lighthouse overview →
About Harden-Windows-Security
Harden Windows Security is a GitHub repository and Windows focused security project written in C under the MIT license. It provides guides and tools for hardening Windows devices by using official, supported Microsoft methods rather than third party components. The project lives in the Windows and Microsoft security ecosystem, including Defender, BitLocker, firewall configuration, audit, encryption, compliance, enterprise security, and Intune.
read the full Harden-Windows-Security overview →
More in Business Software
Related comparisons
More Compliance & Risk Management projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Compliance & Risk Management field.
Frequently asked questions
Is lighthouse or Harden-Windows-Security more popular?
lighthouse has 30,785 GitHub stars and Harden-Windows-Security has 4,747. lighthouse has the larger community by that measure.
Are lighthouse and Harden-Windows-Security free?
Both are open source. lighthouse is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Harden-Windows-Security under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between lighthouse and Harden-Windows-Security?
lighthouse is written in JavaScript and Harden-Windows-Security 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, lighthouse or Harden-Windows-Security?
Choose lighthouse if you want the larger community (30,785 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Harden-Windows-Security if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.