head to head · open source
lynis vs UTMStack
lynis has 16,356 GitHub stars, 1,635 forks, 224 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. UTMStack has 582 stars, 76 forks, 141 open issues and last shipped yesterday. lynis leads on adoption by 2,710% (16,356 vs 582 stars). lynis is written in Shell under GPL-3.0; UTMStack is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0. lynis has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, UTMStack 13%. UTMStack was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (compliance, hipaa, 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.
← all 8884 open source comparisons
Side by side
| lynis | UTMStack | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 16K | ★ 582 |
| License | GPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Shell | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-16 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.6K | ⑂ 76 |
| 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 UTMStack if
- You want the UTMStack feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and UTMStack 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 UTMStack
[!IMPORTANT] ⚠️ UPGRADE NOTIFICATION and UTMStack v10 End of Life Notice UTMStack v10 will be sunset on December 5, 2026. As of today, v10 is no longer receiving any new features and will only receive critical fixes until the sunset date. After December 5, 2026, v10 will no longer be supported. 👉 All users must upgrade to v11 as soon as possible using the upgrade package. Full guide here: UTMStack Enterprise ready SIEM and XDR powered by Real Time correlation and Threat Intelligence Introduction Welcome to the UTMStack open source project! UTMStack is a unified threat management platform that merges SIEM (Securi…
read the full UTMStack overview →
More in Business Software
Related comparisons
More Compliance & Risk Management projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Compliance & Risk Management field.
Frequently asked questions
Is lynis or UTMStack more popular?
lynis has 16,356 GitHub stars and UTMStack has 582. lynis has the larger community by that measure.
Are lynis and UTMStack free?
Both are open source. lynis is licensed under GPL-3.0 and UTMStack under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between lynis and UTMStack?
lynis is written in Shell and UTMStack 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 UTMStack?
Choose lynis if you want the larger community (16,356 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose UTMStack if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.