head to head · open source
opa vs checkov
opa has 12,256 GitHub stars, 1,686 forks, 310 open issues and last shipped yesterday. checkov has 9,015 stars, 1,415 forks, 170 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. opa leads on adoption by 36% (12,256 vs 9,015 stars). opa is written in Go under Apache-2.0; checkov is written in Python under Apache-2.0. opa has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, checkov 16%. opa was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (compliance), 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
| opa | checkov | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 12K | ★ 9.0K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.7K | ⑂ 1.4K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick opa if
- You weight community size — 12K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick checkov if
- You want the checkov feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and checkov fits your workflow better
About opa
Open Policy Agent (OPA) is an open source, general purpose policy engine that enables unified, context aware policy enforcement across the entire stack. It lives in the cloud native ecosystem as a graduated project in the Cloud Native Computing Foundation landscape, and it is written in Go under the Apache 2.0 license. Policy is expressed declaratively in the Rego language, and the project ships alongside a CLI, an HTTP REST API, a Go SDK, and editor tooling rather than as a single binary alone. The repository has been active for roughly eleven years, with 12,234 stars, 1,679 forks, and a last push dated 15 Septe…
About checkov
Checkov is an open source static code analysis and software composition analysis tool that scans infrastructure as code, container images and open source packages for security and compliance misconfigurations during the build, and it is aimed at developers, DevOps engineers and security teams who want those checks to run before anything is deployed to AWS, Azure or Google Cloud.
read the full checkov overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is opa or checkov more popular?
opa has 12,256 GitHub stars and checkov has 9,015. opa has the larger community by that measure.
Are opa and checkov free?
Both are open source. opa is licensed under Apache-2.0 and checkov under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between opa and checkov?
opa is written in Go and checkov 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, opa or checkov?
Choose opa if you want the larger community (12,256 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose checkov if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.