head to head · open source
prowler vs chainloop
prowler has 15,159 GitHub stars, 2,479 forks, 371 open issues and last shipped yesterday. chainloop has 610 stars, 64 forks, 17 open issues and last shipped yesterday. prowler leads on adoption by 2,385% (15,159 vs 610 stars). prowler is written in Python under Apache-2.0; chainloop is written in Go under Apache-2.0. prowler has attracted 16% as many forks as stars, chainloop 10%. prowler was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (compliance, devsecops), 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
| prowler | chainloop | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 15K | ★ 610 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.5K | ⑂ 64 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick prowler if
- You weight community size — 15K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick chainloop if
- You want the chainloop 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 chainloop fits your workflow better
About prowler
Prowler is the Open Cloud Security Platform trusted by thousands to automate security and compliance in any cloud environment. With thousands of ready to use checks and compliance frameworks, Prowler delivers real time, customizable monitoring and seamless integrations, making cloud security simple, scalable, and cost effective for organizations of any size. The Agentic Cloud Defender Try Prowler Cloud Join our Prowler community! Description Prowler is the world’s most widely used Open Source Cloud Security Platform that automates security and compliance across any cloud environment . With thousands of ready to…
read the full prowler overview →
About chainloop
Chainloop What is it? Chainloop is an open source evidence store for your Software Supply Chain attestations, Software Bill of Materials (SBOMs), VEX, SARIF, QA reports, and more. With Chainloop, Security, Compliance, and Risk management teams can define security and compliance policies, what evidence and artifacts they want to receive, and where to store them. On the other hand, developers are shielded from all this complexity by being given simple instructions on what to provide when instrumenting their CI/CD pipelines. To learn more about the project motivation please look at our documentation. How does it…
read the full chainloop overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is prowler or chainloop more popular?
prowler has 15,159 GitHub stars and chainloop has 610. prowler has the larger community by that measure.
Are prowler and chainloop free?
Both are open source. prowler is licensed under Apache-2.0 and chainloop under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between prowler and chainloop?
prowler is written in Python and chainloop 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, prowler or chainloop?
Choose prowler if you want the larger community (15,159 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose chainloop if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.