head to head · open source
lynis vs prowler
lynis has 16,355 GitHub stars, 1,635 forks, 224 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. prowler has 14,830 stars, 2,389 forks, 371 open issues and last shipped yesterday. lynis leads on adoption by 10% (16,355 vs 14,830 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 | ★ 16K | ★ 15K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Shell | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-16 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.6K | ⑂ 2.4K |
| 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 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
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 prowler
Prowler is an Apache 2.0, Python based open source cloud security platform that automates security and compliance assessments across AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud through thousands of ready to use checks, aimed at cloud security, compliance, and DevSecOps teams that need continuous posture management without a commercial licence.
read the full prowler overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is lynis or prowler more popular?
lynis has 16,355 GitHub stars and prowler has 14,830. 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 (16,355 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.