head to head · open source
nono vs akto
nono has 4,140 GitHub stars, 274 forks, 201 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. akto has 1,518 stars, 292 forks, 347 open issues and last shipped yesterday. nono leads on adoption by 173% (4,140 vs 1,518 stars). nono is written in Rust under Apache-2.0; akto is written in Java under MIT. nono has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, akto 19%. akto was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (ai-security, ai-security-tool), 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
| nono | akto | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 4.1K | ★ 1.5K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Rust | Java |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 274 | ⑂ 292 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick nono if
- You weight community size — 4.1K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick akto if
- You want the akto feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and akto fits your workflow better
About nono
nono is a Rust project for secure multiplexed execution paths for AI agents. It lives in AI security and privacy. It is built by the team that brought Sigstore. It aims to run agents with zero trust, zero setup, and zero latency.
About akto
Akto is an open source Java project under the MIT license. Its metadata presents it as an AI security platform for teams that secure AI agents, MCPs, LLMs, Agent skills, and Gen AI apps, while its README describes it as an open source API security platform. It lives in the open source API security and AI security ecosystem.
More in AI & Machine Learning
Related comparisons
More AI Security & Privacy projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the AI Security & Privacy field.
Frequently asked questions
Is nono or akto more popular?
nono has 4,140 GitHub stars and akto has 1,518. nono has the larger community by that measure.
Are nono and akto free?
Both are open source. nono is licensed under Apache-2.0 and akto under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between nono and akto?
nono is written in Rust and akto in Java. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, nono or akto?
Choose nono if you want the larger community (4,140 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose akto if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.