head to head · open source
lynis vs ThreatMapper
lynis has 16,355 GitHub stars, 1,635 forks, 224 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. ThreatMapper has 5,321 stars, 631 forks, 144 open issues and last shipped 4 months ago. lynis leads on adoption by 207% (16,355 vs 5,321 stars). lynis is written in Shell under GPL-3.0; ThreatMapper is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. lynis has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, ThreatMapper 12%. lynis was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (compliance, devops), 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 | ThreatMapper | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 16K | ★ 5.3K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Shell | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-16 | 2026-06-01 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.6K | ⑂ 631 |
| 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 ThreatMapper if
- You want the ThreatMapper 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 ThreatMapper 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 ThreatMapper
ThreatMapper is an open source Cloud Native Application Protection Platform for runtime threat management and attack path enumeration. It operates in the cloud native security ecosystem and targets containers, Kubernetes, serverless platforms, cloud infrastructure, and on premises workloads. The project is Apache 2.0 licensed and written in TypeScript.
read the full ThreatMapper overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is lynis or ThreatMapper more popular?
lynis has 16,355 GitHub stars and ThreatMapper has 5,321. lynis has the larger community by that measure.
Are lynis and ThreatMapper free?
Both are open source. lynis is licensed under GPL-3.0 and ThreatMapper under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between lynis and ThreatMapper?
lynis is written in Shell and ThreatMapper 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 ThreatMapper?
Choose lynis if you want the larger community (16,355 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose ThreatMapper if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.