head to head · open source
lynis vs windows_hardening
lynis has 16,355 GitHub stars, 1,635 forks, 224 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. windows_hardening has 2,658 stars, 331 forks, 21 open issues and last shipped 18 days ago. lynis leads on adoption by 515% (16,355 vs 2,658 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%. 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, 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.
← all 8884 open source comparisons
Side by side
| lynis | windows_hardening | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 16K | ★ 2.7K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Shell | PowerShell |
| Last push | 2026-09-16 | 2026-08-31 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.6K | ⑂ 331 |
| 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 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
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 windows_hardening
HardeningKitty and Windows Hardening Settings is a PowerShell project for Windows security baselines, compliance checklists, and system hardening. It began as a simple Windows 10 hardening list and later became a tool that supports Microsoft guidelines, CIS Benchmarks, DoD STIG, BSI SiSyPHuS Win10, and the project's own list. The project lives in the Windows PowerShell and security baseline ecosystem.
read the full windows_hardening 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 windows_hardening more popular?
lynis has 16,355 GitHub stars and windows_hardening has 2,658. 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 (16,355 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.