head to head · open source
lighthouse vs polaris
lighthouse has 31,005 GitHub stars, 9,785 forks, 470 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. polaris has 3,399 stars, 230 forks, 17 open issues and last shipped yesterday. lighthouse leads on adoption by 812% (31,005 vs 3,399 stars). lighthouse is written in JavaScript under Apache-2.0; polaris is written in Go under Apache-2.0. lighthouse has attracted 32% as many forks as stars, polaris 7%. polaris was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (audit, best-practices), 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
| lighthouse | polaris | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 31K | ★ 3.4K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-01 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.8K | ⑂ 230 |
| 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 polaris if
- You want the polaris 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 polaris fits your workflow better
About lighthouse
Lighthouse Lighthouse analyzes web apps and web pages, collecting modern performance metrics and insights on developer best practices. Using Lighthouse Using Lighthouse in Chrome DevTools Using the Chrome extension Using the Node CLI CLI options Using the Node module Viewing a report Online Viewer Docs & Recipes Developing Lighthouse Setup Run Tests Docs Associated Products and Projects Lighthouse Integrations in Web Perf services Lighthouse Integrations in non Web Perf services Plugins Related projects FAQ How does Lighthouse work? Can I configure the lighthouse run? How does Lighthouse use network throttling…
read the full lighthouse overview →
About polaris
Polaris is an open source policy engine for Kubernetes Polaris is an open source policy engine for Kubernetes that validates and remediates resource configuration. It includes 30+ built in configuration policies, as well as the ability to build custom policies with JSON Schema. When run on the command line or as a mutating webhook, Polaris can automatically remediate issues based on policy criteria. Polaris can be run in three different modes: As a dashboard Validate Kubernetes resources against policy as code. As an admission controller Automatically reject or modify workloads that don't adhere to your…
read the full polaris overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is lighthouse or polaris more popular?
lighthouse has 31,005 GitHub stars and polaris has 3,399. lighthouse has the larger community by that measure.
Are lighthouse and polaris free?
Both are open source. lighthouse is licensed under Apache-2.0 and polaris under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between lighthouse and polaris?
lighthouse is written in JavaScript and polaris 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, lighthouse or polaris?
Choose lighthouse if you want the larger community (31,005 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose polaris if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.