head to head · open source
lynis vs next-terminal
lynis has 16,355 GitHub stars, 1,635 forks, 224 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. next-terminal has 5,636 stars, 781 forks, 8 open issues and last shipped yesterday. lynis leads on adoption by 190% (16,355 vs 5,636 stars). lynis is written in Shell under GPL-3.0; next-terminal is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. lynis has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, next-terminal 14%. next-terminal 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 | next-terminal | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 16K | ★ 5.6K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Shell | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-16 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.6K | ⑂ 781 |
| 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 next-terminal if
- You want the next-terminal feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and next-terminal 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 next-terminal
Next Terminal is a self hosted bastion and session auditing system for enterprise IT teams that need recorded, replayable access to remote machines over RDP, SSH, VNC, Telnet, and HTTP.
read the full next-terminal overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is lynis or next-terminal more popular?
lynis has 16,355 GitHub stars and next-terminal has 5,636. lynis has the larger community by that measure.
Are lynis and next-terminal free?
Both are open source. lynis is licensed under GPL-3.0 and next-terminal under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between lynis and next-terminal?
lynis is written in Shell and next-terminal 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 next-terminal?
Choose lynis if you want the larger community (16,355 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose next-terminal if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.