head to head · open source
lynis vs pwndoc
lynis has 16,611 GitHub stars, 1,645 forks, 224 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. pwndoc has 2,918 stars, 520 forks, 122 open issues and last shipped 8 days ago. lynis leads on adoption by 469% (16,611 vs 2,918 stars). lynis is written in Shell under GPL-3.0; pwndoc is written in JavaScript under MIT. lynis has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, pwndoc 18%. pwndoc was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (security-audit), 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 | pwndoc | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 17K | ★ 2.9K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Shell | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-16 | 2026-10-26 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.6K | ⑂ 520 |
| 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 pwndoc if
- You want the pwndoc feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and pwndoc 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 pwndoc
PwnDoc PwnDoc is a pentest reporting application making it simple and easy to write your findings and generate a customizable Docx report. The main goal is to have more time to Pwn and less time to Doc by mutualizing data like vulnerabilities between users. Documentation Installation Data Roles Vulnerabilities Audits Templating Settings Profile Features Multiple Language support Multiple Data support Great Customization Manage reusable Audit and Vulnerability Data Create Custom Sections Add custom fields to Vulnerabilities Vulnerabilities Management with CVSS v3 and v4 scoring Multi User reporting with real time…
read the full pwndoc overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is lynis or pwndoc more popular?
lynis has 16,611 GitHub stars and pwndoc has 2,918. lynis has the larger community by that measure.
Are lynis and pwndoc free?
Both are open source. lynis is licensed under GPL-3.0 and pwndoc under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between lynis and pwndoc?
lynis is written in Shell and pwndoc in JavaScript. 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 pwndoc?
Choose lynis if you want the larger community (16,611 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose pwndoc if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.