head to head · open source
prowler vs SnapOtter
prowler has 14,830 GitHub stars, 2,389 forks, 371 open issues and last shipped yesterday. SnapOtter has 2,685 stars, 136 forks, 208 open issues and last shipped yesterday. prowler leads on adoption by 452% (14,830 vs 2,685 stars). prowler is written in Python under Apache-2.0; SnapOtter is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0. prowler has attracted 16% as many forks as stars, SnapOtter 5%. SnapOtter 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.
← all 8884 open source comparisons
Side by side
| prowler | SnapOtter | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 15K | ★ 2.7K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Python | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 136 |
| 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 SnapOtter if
- You want the SnapOtter feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and SnapOtter 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 SnapOtter
SnapOtter is an open source, self hosted file processing tool in TypeScript under AGPL 3.0. It provides a UI, REST API, and pipelines for conversion, compression, editing, OCR, transcription, metadata stripping, and local AI across images, video, audio, PDFs, and documents. It lives in the Docker based self hosted software ecosystem, where teams process media and documents on owned hardware instead of external services.
read the full SnapOtter overview →
More in Business Software
Related comparisons
More Compliance & Risk Management projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Compliance & Risk Management field.
Frequently asked questions
Is prowler or SnapOtter more popular?
prowler has 14,830 GitHub stars and SnapOtter has 2,685. prowler has the larger community by that measure.
Are prowler and SnapOtter free?
Both are open source. prowler is licensed under Apache-2.0 and SnapOtter under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between prowler and SnapOtter?
prowler is written in Python and SnapOtter in TypeScript. 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 SnapOtter?
Choose prowler if you want the larger community (14,830 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose SnapOtter if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.