head to head · open source
gitleaks vs Prefect
gitleaks has 29,364 GitHub stars, 2,236 forks, 481 open issues and last shipped 9 days ago. Prefect has 23,857 stars, 2,528 forks, 858 open issues and last shipped yesterday. gitleaks leads on adoption by 23% (29,364 vs 23,857 stars). gitleaks is written in Go under MIT; Prefect is written in Python under Apache-2.0. gitleaks has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, Prefect 11%. Prefect was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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
| gitleaks | Prefect | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 29K | ★ 24K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-09 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.2K | ⑂ 2.5K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick gitleaks if
- You weight community size — 29K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Prefect if
- You want the Prefect 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 Prefect fits your workflow better
About gitleaks
Gitleaks is an MIT licensed, Go based command line tool that detects hardcoded secrets such as passwords, API keys, and tokens in git repositories, files, and standard input, and it serves developers and security teams that need to keep credentials out of source control.
read the full gitleaks overview →
About Prefect
Prefect is an open source, Python native workflow orchestration framework that lets data and machine learning teams turn ordinary Python scripts into scheduled, resilient, observable production pipelines.
read the full Prefect overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is gitleaks or Prefect more popular?
gitleaks has 29,364 GitHub stars and Prefect has 23,857. gitleaks has the larger community by that measure.
Are gitleaks and Prefect free?
Both are open source. gitleaks is licensed under MIT and Prefect under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between gitleaks and Prefect?
gitleaks is written in Go and Prefect 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, gitleaks or Prefect?
Choose gitleaks if you want the larger community (29,364 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Prefect if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.