head to head · open source
lynis vs prowler
lynis has 16,611 GitHub stars, 1,645 forks, 224 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. prowler has 15,159 stars, 2,479 forks, 371 open issues and last shipped yesterday. lynis leads on adoption by 10% (16,611 vs 15,159 stars). lynis is written in Shell under GPL-3.0; prowler is written in Python under Apache-2.0. lynis has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, prowler 16%. prowler was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (compliance, gdpr), 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 | prowler | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 17K | ★ 15K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Shell | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-16 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.6K | ⑂ 2.5K |
| 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 prowler if
- You want the prowler feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and prowler 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 prowler
Prowler is the Open Cloud Security Platform trusted by thousands to automate security and compliance in any cloud environment. With thousands of ready to use checks and compliance frameworks, Prowler delivers real time, customizable monitoring and seamless integrations, making cloud security simple, scalable, and cost effective for organizations of any size. The Agentic Cloud Defender Try Prowler Cloud Join our Prowler community! Description Prowler is the world’s most widely used Open Source Cloud Security Platform that automates security and compliance across any cloud environment . With thousands of ready to…
read the full prowler overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is lynis or prowler more popular?
lynis has 16,611 GitHub stars and prowler has 15,159. lynis has the larger community by that measure.
Are lynis and prowler free?
Both are open source. lynis is licensed under GPL-3.0 and prowler under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between lynis and prowler?
lynis is written in Shell and prowler 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 prowler?
Choose lynis if you want the larger community (16,611 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose prowler if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.