head to head · open source
lighthouse vs webterminal
lighthouse has 30,785 GitHub stars, 9,765 forks, 470 open issues and last shipped yesterday. webterminal has 1,715 stars, 560 forks, 8 open issues and last shipped 11 months ago. lighthouse leads on adoption by 1,695% (30,785 vs 1,715 stars). lighthouse is written in JavaScript under Apache-2.0; webterminal is written in Python under LGPL-3.0. lighthouse has attracted 32% as many forks as stars, webterminal 33%. 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 | webterminal | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 31K | ★ 1.7K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | LGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2025-10-11 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.8K | ⑂ 560 |
| 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 webterminal if
- You want the webterminal feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the LGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and webterminal 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 webterminal
Webterminal is open source bastion server. It uses Python and Django. It puts SSH, RDP, VNC, Telnet, and SFTP access into browser. It lives in Python/Django DevOps and compliance ecosystem. Project category is Business Software and Compliance Risk Management. GitHub description also mentions websocket, OTP dynamic password, cloud desktop, automation, and file management. Repository uses LGPL 3.0 license and has 1715 stars, 560 forks, eight open issues. Project supports English and Chinese documentation.
read the full webterminal 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 webterminal more popular?
lighthouse has 30,785 GitHub stars and webterminal has 1,715. lighthouse has the larger community by that measure.
Are lighthouse and webterminal free?
Both are open source. lighthouse is licensed under Apache-2.0 and webterminal under LGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between lighthouse and webterminal?
lighthouse is written in JavaScript and webterminal in Python. 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 webterminal?
Choose lighthouse if you want the larger community (30,785 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose webterminal if its feature set, stack or LGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.