head to head · open source
lynis vs c15t
lynis has 16,611 GitHub stars, 1,645 forks, 224 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. c15t has 2,018 stars, 266 forks, 27 open issues and last shipped yesterday. lynis leads on adoption by 723% (16,611 vs 2,018 stars). lynis is written in Shell under GPL-3.0; c15t is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. lynis has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, c15t 13%. c15t was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (gdpr), 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 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| lynis | c15t | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 17K | ★ 2.0K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Shell | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-16 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.6K | ⑂ 266 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick lynis if
- You weight community size — 17K stars and counting
- You want the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Shell
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick c15t if
- You want the c15t feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and c15t fits your workflow better
About lynis
[Documentation] [Documentation]: Do you like this software? Star the project and become a stargazer. lynis Lynis Security auditing and hardening tool, for UNIX based systems. Lynis is a security auditing tool for systems based on UNIX like Linux, macOS, BSD, and others. It performs an in depth security scan and runs on the system itself. The primary goal is to test security defenses and provide tips for further system hardening . It will also scan for general system information, vulnerable software packages, and possible configuration issues. Lynis was commonly used by system administrators and auditors to…
read the full lynis overview →
About c15t
c15t is a developer first consent management platform (CMP) used by 2,100+ sites, including expo.dev, zed.dev, and unkey.dev. It helps JavaScript, React, and Next.js teams build cookie banners, preference centers, privacy preferences, and fully headless consent flows, with integrations for Google Tag Manager, Google Consent Mode v2, Meta Pixel, IAB TCF 2.3, and more. Overview c15t keeps consent management inside your application stack instead of a black box third party snippet. Use the prebuilt UI for cookie banners, consent dialogs, and preference centers, or use the headless APIs to build a fully custom…
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 lynis or c15t more popular?
lynis has 16,611 GitHub stars and c15t has 2,018. lynis has the larger community by that measure.
Are lynis and c15t free?
Both are open source. lynis is licensed under GPL-3.0 and c15t under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between lynis and c15t?
lynis is written in Shell and c15t in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, lynis or c15t?
Choose lynis if you want the larger community (16,611 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose c15t if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.