head to head · open source
lynis vs flashlight
lynis has 16,355 GitHub stars, 1,635 forks, 224 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. flashlight has 1,604 stars, 48 forks, 29 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. lynis leads on adoption by 920% (16,355 vs 1,604 stars). lynis is written in Shell under GPL-3.0; flashlight is written in TypeScript under MIT. lynis has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, flashlight 3%. lynis was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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 | flashlight | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 16K | ★ 1.6K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Shell | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-16 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.6K | ⑂ 48 |
| 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 flashlight if
- You want the flashlight feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and flashlight 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 flashlight
Flashlight is an open source Android mobile performance audit tool written in TypeScript and licensed under MIT. It is positioned as a Lighthouse for Mobile tool, and it gives Android applications a performance score by aggregating different metrics. The project lives in the Android mobile ecosystem and covers native Android apps, React Native apps, and Flutter apps.
read the full flashlight overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is lynis or flashlight more popular?
lynis has 16,355 GitHub stars and flashlight has 1,604. lynis has the larger community by that measure.
Are lynis and flashlight free?
Both are open source. lynis is licensed under GPL-3.0 and flashlight under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between lynis and flashlight?
lynis is written in Shell and flashlight 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 flashlight?
Choose lynis if you want the larger community (16,355 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose flashlight if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.