head to head · open source
lighthouse vs ossec-hids
lighthouse has 30,785 GitHub stars, 9,765 forks, 470 open issues and last shipped yesterday. ossec-hids has 5,057 stars, 1,074 forks, 125 open issues and last shipped yesterday. lighthouse leads on adoption by 509% (30,785 vs 5,057 stars). lighthouse is written in JavaScript under Apache-2.0; ossec-hids is written in C under GPL-2.0. lighthouse has attracted 32% as many forks as stars, ossec-hids 21%. lighthouse was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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
| lighthouse | ossec-hids | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 31K | ★ 5.1K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-2.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | C |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.8K | ⑂ 1.1K |
| 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 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 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 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 lighthouse or ossec-hids more popular?
lighthouse has 30,785 GitHub stars and ossec-hids has 5,057. lighthouse has the larger community by that measure.
Are lighthouse and ossec-hids free?
Both are open source. lighthouse is licensed under Apache-2.0 and ossec-hids under GPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between lighthouse and ossec-hids?
lighthouse is written in JavaScript 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, lighthouse or ossec-hids?
Choose lighthouse if you want the larger community (30,785 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.