head to head · open source
SafeLine vs prest
SafeLine has 22,638 GitHub stars, 1,535 forks, 69 open issues and last shipped today. prest has 4,619 stars, 322 forks, 153 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. SafeLine leads on adoption by 390% (22,638 vs 4,619 stars). SafeLine is written in Go under GPL-3.0; prest is written in Go under MIT. SafeLine has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, prest 7%. SafeLine 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
| SafeLine | prest | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 23K | ★ 4.6K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.5K | ⑂ 322 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick SafeLine if
- You weight community size — 23K stars and counting
- You want the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick prest if
- You want the prest feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and prest fits your workflow better
About SafeLine
SafeLine is a self hosted web application firewall and reverse proxy, written in Go and licensed under GPL 3.0, that filters, monitors, and blocks malicious HTTP/S traffic before it reaches a web application — built for developers, AppSec engineers, and blue teams who want to run edge protection on their own infrastructure.
read the full SafeLine overview →
About prest
pREST (PostgreSQL + REST) is a production ready, MIT licensed Go service that exposes an instant REST API and a read only Model Context Protocol (MCP) endpoint on top of any existing or new PostgreSQL database, built for teams that want CRUD, custom SQL routes, authentication and access control without hand writing a backend.
read the full prest overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is SafeLine or prest more popular?
SafeLine has 22,638 GitHub stars and prest has 4,619. SafeLine has the larger community by that measure.
Are SafeLine and prest free?
Both are open source. SafeLine is licensed under GPL-3.0 and prest under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between SafeLine and prest?
SafeLine is written in Go and prest in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, SafeLine or prest?
Choose SafeLine if you want the larger community (22,638 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose prest if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.