head to head · open source
lynis vs dep-scan
lynis has 16,611 GitHub stars, 1,645 forks, 224 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. dep-scan has 1,324 stars, 140 forks, 82 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. lynis leads on adoption by 1,155% (16,611 vs 1,324 stars). lynis is written in Shell under GPL-3.0; dep-scan is written in Python under MIT. lynis has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, dep-scan 11%. dep-scan was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (compliance, security-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.
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Side by side
| lynis | dep-scan | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 17K | ★ 1.3K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Shell | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-16 | 2026-10-30 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.6K | ⑂ 140 |
| 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 dep-scan if
- You want the dep-scan feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and dep-scan 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 dep-scan
Introduction OWASP dep scan is a next generation security and risk audit tool based on known vulnerabilities, advisories, and license limitations for project dependencies. Both local repositories and container images are supported as the input, and the tool is ideal for integration with ASPM/VM platforms and in CI environments. Contents Features Precise reachable data flows Reachability matrix Rust reachability (via rusi) Go reachability (via golem) .NET reachability (via dosai) JVM, JavaScript, Python, and PHP reachability (via atom) Vulnerability Data sources Linux distros Quick Start Scanning projects locally…
read the full dep-scan overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is lynis or dep-scan more popular?
lynis has 16,611 GitHub stars and dep-scan has 1,324. lynis has the larger community by that measure.
Are lynis and dep-scan free?
Both are open source. lynis is licensed under GPL-3.0 and dep-scan under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between lynis and dep-scan?
lynis is written in Shell and dep-scan 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 dep-scan?
Choose lynis if you want the larger community (16,611 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose dep-scan if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.