head to head · open source
lynis vs laravel-activitylog
lynis has 16,355 GitHub stars, 1,635 forks, 224 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. laravel-activitylog has 5,900 stars, 745 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped 10 days ago. lynis leads on adoption by 177% (16,355 vs 5,900 stars). lynis is written in Shell under GPL-3.0; laravel-activitylog is written in PHP under MIT. lynis has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, laravel-activitylog 13%. 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 | laravel-activitylog | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 16K | ★ 5.9K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Shell | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-09-16 | 2026-09-08 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.6K | ⑂ 745 |
| 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 laravel-activitylog if
- You want the laravel-activitylog feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and laravel-activitylog 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 laravel-activitylog
laravel activitylog is a free, MIT licensed PHP package from Spatie that records user and model activity inside a Laravel application in a single database table, aimed at Laravel developers and teams that need an auditable trail of who changed what.
read the full laravel-activitylog overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is lynis or laravel-activitylog more popular?
lynis has 16,355 GitHub stars and laravel-activitylog has 5,900. lynis has the larger community by that measure.
Are lynis and laravel-activitylog free?
Both are open source. lynis is licensed under GPL-3.0 and laravel-activitylog under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between lynis and laravel-activitylog?
lynis is written in Shell and laravel-activitylog in PHP. 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 laravel-activitylog?
Choose lynis if you want the larger community (16,355 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose laravel-activitylog if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.