head to head · open source
lynis vs checkov
lynis has 16,355 GitHub stars, 1,635 forks, 224 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. checkov has 9,010 stars, 1,412 forks, 170 open issues and last shipped yesterday. lynis leads on adoption by 82% (16,355 vs 9,010 stars). lynis is written in Shell under GPL-3.0; checkov is written in Python under Apache-2.0. lynis has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, checkov 16%. checkov was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (compliance, devops), 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
| lynis | checkov | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 16K | ★ 9.0K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Shell | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-16 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.6K | ⑂ 1.4K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick lynis if
- You weight community size — 16K 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 checkov if
- You want the checkov feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and checkov fits your workflow better
About lynis
Lynis is an agentless, GPL 3.0 security auditing and hardening tool that runs on the UNIX based system itself, built for system administrators, auditors, security officers, and penetration testers who need to assess security defenses and test compliance against standards such as ISO27001, PCI DSS, and HIPAA.
read the full lynis overview →
About checkov
Checkov is an open source static code analysis and software composition analysis tool that scans infrastructure as code, container images and open source packages for security and compliance misconfigurations during the build, and it is aimed at developers, DevOps engineers and security teams who want those checks to run before anything is deployed to AWS, Azure or Google Cloud.
read the full checkov overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is lynis or checkov more popular?
lynis has 16,355 GitHub stars and checkov has 9,010. lynis has the larger community by that measure.
Are lynis and checkov free?
Both are open source. lynis is licensed under GPL-3.0 and checkov under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between lynis and checkov?
lynis is written in Shell and checkov 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, lynis or checkov?
Choose lynis if you want the larger community (16,355 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose checkov if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.