head to head · open source
prowler vs kyverno
prowler has 14,830 GitHub stars, 2,389 forks, 371 open issues and last shipped yesterday. kyverno has 8,159 stars, 1,596 forks, 703 open issues and last shipped yesterday. prowler leads on adoption by 82% (14,830 vs 8,159 stars). prowler is written in Python under Apache-2.0; kyverno is written in Go under Apache-2.0. prowler has attracted 16% as many forks as stars, kyverno 20%. 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 | kyverno | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 15K | ★ 8.2K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 1.6K |
| 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 kyverno if
- You want the kyverno 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 kyverno fits your workflow better
About prowler
Prowler is an Apache 2.0, Python based open source cloud security platform that automates security and compliance assessments across AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud through thousands of ready to use checks, aimed at cloud security, compliance, and DevSecOps teams that need continuous posture management without a commercial licence.
read the full prowler overview →
About kyverno
Kyverno is a Kubernetes native policy engine that lets platform engineering teams define security, compliance, automation, and governance rules as policy as code, using the Kubernetes tools they already run rather than a separate policy language.
read the full kyverno overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is prowler or kyverno more popular?
prowler has 14,830 GitHub stars and kyverno has 8,159. prowler has the larger community by that measure.
Are prowler and kyverno free?
Both are open source. prowler is licensed under Apache-2.0 and kyverno under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between prowler and kyverno?
prowler is written in Python and kyverno 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 kyverno?
Choose prowler if you want the larger community (14,830 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose kyverno if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.