head to head · open source
ProjectDiscovery vs osv-scanner
ProjectDiscovery has 32,543 GitHub stars, 3,962 forks, 107 open issues and last shipped yesterday. osv-scanner has 11,367 stars, 833 forks, 113 open issues and last shipped yesterday. ProjectDiscovery leads on adoption by 186% (32,543 vs 11,367 stars). ProjectDiscovery is written in Go under MIT; osv-scanner is written in Go under Apache-2.0. ProjectDiscovery has attracted 12% as many forks as stars, osv-scanner 7%. osv-scanner was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (vulnerability-scanner), 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
| ProjectDiscovery | osv-scanner | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 33K | ★ 11K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.0K | ⑂ 833 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick ProjectDiscovery if
- You weight community size — 33K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick osv-scanner if
- You want the osv-scanner feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and osv-scanner fits your workflow better
About ProjectDiscovery
English • 中文 • Korean • Indonesia • Spanish • 日本語 • Portuguese • Türkçe Nuclei is a modern, high performance vulnerability scanner that leverages simple YAML based templates. It empowers you to design custom vulnerability detection scenarios that mimic real world conditions, leading to zero false positives. Simple YAML format for creating and customizing vulnerability templates. Contributed by thousands of security professionals to tackle trending vulnerabilities. Reduce false positives by simulating real world steps to verify a vulnerability. Ultra fast parallel scan processing and request clustering. Integrate…
read the full ProjectDiscovery overview →
About osv-scanner
Use OSV Scanner to find existing vulnerabilities affecting your project's dependencies. OSV Scanner provides an officially supported frontend to the OSV database and CLI interface to OSV Scalibr that connects a project’s list of dependencies with the vulnerabilities that affect them. OSV Scanner supports a wide range of project types, package managers and features, including but not limited to: Languages: C/C++, Dart, Elixir, Go, Java, Javascript, PHP, Python, R, Ruby, Rust. Package Managers: npm, pip, yarn, maven, go modules, cargo, gem, composer, nuget and others. Operating Systems: Detects vulnerabilities in…
read the full osv-scanner overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is ProjectDiscovery or osv-scanner more popular?
ProjectDiscovery has 32,543 GitHub stars and osv-scanner has 11,367. ProjectDiscovery has the larger community by that measure.
Are ProjectDiscovery and osv-scanner free?
Both are open source. ProjectDiscovery is licensed under MIT and osv-scanner under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between ProjectDiscovery and osv-scanner?
ProjectDiscovery is written in Go and osv-scanner 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, ProjectDiscovery or osv-scanner?
Choose ProjectDiscovery if you want the larger community (32,543 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose osv-scanner if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.