head to head · open source
lynis vs windows_hardening
lynis has 16,611 GitHub stars, 1,645 forks, 224 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. windows_hardening has 2,673 stars, 332 forks, 21 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. lynis leads on adoption by 521% (16,611 vs 2,673 stars). lynis is written in Shell under GPL-3.0; windows_hardening is written in PowerShell under MIT. lynis has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, windows_hardening 12%. windows_hardening was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (compliance, hardening), 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 | windows_hardening | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 17K | ★ 2.7K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Shell | PowerShell |
| Last push | 2026-09-16 | 2026-10-31 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.6K | ⑂ 332 |
| 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 windows_hardening if
- You want the windows_hardening feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches PowerShell
- You evaluated both and windows_hardening 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 windows_hardening
HardeningKitty and Windows Hardening Introduction The project started as a simple hardening list for Windows 10. After some time, HardeningKitty was created to simplify the hardening of Windows. Now, HardeningKitty supports guidelines from Microsoft, CIS Benchmarks, DoD STIG and BSI SiSyPHuS Win10. And of course my own hardening list. This is a hardening checklist that can be used in private and business environments for hardening Windows 10. The checklist can be used for all Windows versions, but in Windows 10 Home the Group Policy Editor is not integrated and the adjustment must be done directly in the…
read the full windows_hardening overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is lynis or windows_hardening more popular?
lynis has 16,611 GitHub stars and windows_hardening has 2,673. lynis has the larger community by that measure.
Are lynis and windows_hardening free?
Both are open source. lynis is licensed under GPL-3.0 and windows_hardening under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between lynis and windows_hardening?
lynis is written in Shell and windows_hardening in PowerShell. 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 windows_hardening?
Choose lynis if you want the larger community (16,611 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose windows_hardening if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.