head to head · open source
lynis vs ossec-hids
lynis has 16,355 GitHub stars, 1,635 forks, 224 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. ossec-hids has 5,057 stars, 1,074 forks, 125 open issues and last shipped yesterday. lynis leads on adoption by 223% (16,355 vs 5,057 stars). lynis is written in Shell under GPL-3.0; ossec-hids is written in C under GPL-2.0. lynis has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, ossec-hids 21%. ossec-hids was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (compliance, pci-dss), 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 | ossec-hids | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 16K | ★ 5.1K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | GPL-2.0 |
| Written in | Shell | C |
| Last push | 2026-09-16 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.6K | ⑂ 1.1K |
| 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 ossec-hids if
- You want the ossec-hids feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C
- You evaluated both and ossec-hids 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 ossec-hids
OSSEC is an open source host based intrusion detection system written in C and released under the GNU General Public License version 2. It combines several security functions into one platform: log analysis, file integrity checking, policy monitoring, rootkit detection, real time alerting, and active response. The project describes itself as a full platform to monitor and control systems, mixing the aspects of HIDS, log monitoring, and SIM/SIEM into a single solution. It lives in the security and compliance tooling ecosystem, with topics spanning intrusion detection, file integrity management, log analysis, PCI D…
read the full ossec-hids overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is lynis or ossec-hids more popular?
lynis has 16,355 GitHub stars and ossec-hids has 5,057. lynis has the larger community by that measure.
Are lynis and ossec-hids free?
Both are open source. lynis is licensed under GPL-3.0 and ossec-hids under GPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between lynis and ossec-hids?
lynis is written in Shell and ossec-hids in C. 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 ossec-hids?
Choose lynis if you want the larger community (16,355 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose ossec-hids if its feature set, stack or GPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.