head to head · open source
lynis vs Comp AI
lynis has 16,355 GitHub stars, 1,635 forks, 224 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Comp AI has 1,968 stars, 415 forks, 36 open issues and last shipped 9 days ago. lynis leads on adoption by 731% (16,355 vs 1,968 stars). lynis is written in Shell under GPL-3.0; Comp AI is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0. lynis has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, Comp AI 21%. lynis was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (compliance, 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.
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Side by side
| lynis | Comp AI | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 16K | ★ 2.0K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Shell | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-16 | 2026-09-09 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.6K | ⑂ 415 |
| 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 Comp AI if
- You want the Comp AI feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Comp AI 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 Comp AI
Comp AI is an open source compliance platform written in TypeScript and released under the AGPL 3.0 license. It is positioned as an AI native alternative to paid compliance products such as Vanta and Drata, and it targets companies that need audit ready coverage for SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, and GDPR. The project lives in the Next.js, Prisma, and Auth.js ecosystem, with a cloud hosted option and a self hostable codebase.
read the full Comp AI overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is lynis or Comp AI more popular?
lynis has 16,355 GitHub stars and Comp AI has 1,968. lynis has the larger community by that measure.
Are lynis and Comp AI free?
Both are open source. lynis is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Comp AI under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between lynis and Comp AI?
lynis is written in Shell and Comp AI 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 Comp AI?
Choose lynis if you want the larger community (16,355 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Comp AI if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.