head to head · open source
prowler vs fossology
prowler has 15,159 GitHub stars, 2,479 forks, 371 open issues and last shipped yesterday. fossology has 1,044 stars, 675 forks, 290 open issues and last shipped yesterday. prowler leads on adoption by 1,352% (15,159 vs 1,044 stars). prowler is written in Python under Apache-2.0; fossology is written in HTML under GPL-2.0. prowler has attracted 16% as many forks as stars, fossology 65%. prowler 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
| prowler | fossology | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 15K | ★ 1.0K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | HTML |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.5K | ⑂ 675 |
| 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 fossology if
- You want the fossology feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches HTML
- You evaluated both and fossology 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…
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About fossology
FOSSology About FOSSology is an open source license compliance software system and toolkit. As a toolkit, you can run license, copyright, and export control scans from the command line. As a system, a database and web UI are provided to give you a compliance workflow. In one click you can generate an SPDX file or a ReadMe with all the copyrights notices from your software. FOSSology deduplication means that you can scan an entire distro, rescan a new version, and only the changed files will get rescanned. This is a big time saver for large projects. Check out Who Uses FOSSology! FOSSology does not give legal…
read the full fossology overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is prowler or fossology more popular?
prowler has 15,159 GitHub stars and fossology has 1,044. prowler has the larger community by that measure.
Are prowler and fossology free?
Both are open source. prowler is licensed under Apache-2.0 and fossology under GPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between prowler and fossology?
prowler is written in Python and fossology in HTML. 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 fossology?
Choose prowler if you want the larger community (15,159 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose fossology if its feature set, stack or GPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.