head to head · open source
mantis vs flow-next
mantis has 1,665 GitHub stars, 160 forks, 1 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. flow-next has 698 stars, 55 forks, 6 open issues and last shipped yesterday. mantis leads on adoption by 139% (1,665 vs 698 stars). mantis is written in Python under Apache-2.0; flow-next is written in Python under MIT. mantis has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, flow-next 8%. flow-next was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (code-review), 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 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| mantis | flow-next | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 1.7K | ★ 698 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 160 | ⑂ 55 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick mantis if
- You weight community size — 1.7K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick flow-next if
- You want the flow-next feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and flow-next fits your workflow better
About mantis
Mantis is a modular, stack agnostic toolkit of security review skills for AI coding agents, and it includes an ADK reference harness for building secure software. It lives in the developer tools, AI coding agent, and application security ecosystem, with topics such as code review, DevSecOps, multi agent systems, and hardware security. The project helps agents autonomously find, reproduce, and patch vulnerabilities while giving humans a structured way to review results.
read the full mantis overview →
About flow-next
Flow Next is a workflow plugin that runs inside AI coding agents such as Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, and Droid, turning a change request into specs, implementation, adversarial cross model review, and a pull request with recorded evidence, and it is aimed at individual developers and teams who already generate code with agents but lack a repeatable way to verify the result.
read the full flow-next overview →
More in Developer Tools
Related comparisons
More Version Control & Collaboration projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Version Control & Collaboration field.
Frequently asked questions
Is mantis or flow-next more popular?
mantis has 1,665 GitHub stars and flow-next has 698. mantis has the larger community by that measure.
Are mantis and flow-next free?
Both are open source. mantis is licensed under Apache-2.0 and flow-next under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between mantis and flow-next?
mantis is written in Python and flow-next in Python. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, mantis or flow-next?
Choose mantis if you want the larger community (1,665 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose flow-next if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.