head to head · open source
prowler vs opa
prowler has 14,830 GitHub stars, 2,389 forks, 371 open issues and last shipped yesterday. opa has 12,244 stars, 1,685 forks, 310 open issues and last shipped yesterday. prowler leads on adoption by 21% (14,830 vs 12,244 stars). prowler is written in Python under Apache-2.0; opa is written in Go under Apache-2.0. prowler has attracted 16% as many forks as stars, opa 14%. opa 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 | opa | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 15K | ★ 12K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 1.7K |
| 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 opa if
- You want the opa 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 opa 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 opa
Open Policy Agent (OPA) is an open source, general purpose policy engine that enables unified, context aware policy enforcement across the entire stack. It lives in the cloud native ecosystem as a graduated project in the Cloud Native Computing Foundation landscape, and it is written in Go under the Apache 2.0 license. Policy is expressed declaratively in the Rego language, and the project ships alongside a CLI, an HTTP REST API, a Go SDK, and editor tooling rather than as a single binary alone. The repository has been active for roughly eleven years, with 12,234 stars, 1,679 forks, and a last push dated 15 Septe…
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Frequently asked questions
Is prowler or opa more popular?
prowler has 14,830 GitHub stars and opa has 12,244. prowler has the larger community by that measure.
Are prowler and opa free?
Both are open source. prowler is licensed under Apache-2.0 and opa under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between prowler and opa?
prowler is written in Python and opa 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 opa?
Choose prowler if you want the larger community (14,830 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose opa if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.