head to head · open source
prowler vs tfsec
prowler has 14,830 GitHub stars, 2,389 forks, 371 open issues and last shipped yesterday. tfsec has 7,038 stars, 558 forks, 18 open issues and last shipped 6 months ago. prowler leads on adoption by 111% (14,830 vs 7,038 stars). prowler is written in Python under Apache-2.0; tfsec is written in Go under MIT. prowler has attracted 16% as many forks as stars, tfsec 8%. prowler was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 5 topic tags (aws, azure, 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 | tfsec | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 15K | ★ 7.0K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-03-25 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 558 |
| 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 tfsec if
- You want the tfsec feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and tfsec 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 tfsec
tfsec is a static analysis security scanner for Terraform code, written in Go and released under the MIT license. It lives in the infrastructure as code and DevSecOps ecosystem, alongside tools such as linters and CI scanners. The project is now part of Trivy, Aqua Security's broader open source security scanner, and its Terraform scanning engine forms the foundation of Trivy's IaC and misconfiguration scanning capabilities. The repository remains available, but engineering attention is directed at Trivy going forward.
read the full tfsec overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is prowler or tfsec more popular?
prowler has 14,830 GitHub stars and tfsec has 7,038. prowler has the larger community by that measure.
Are prowler and tfsec free?
Both are open source. prowler is licensed under Apache-2.0 and tfsec under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between prowler and tfsec?
prowler is written in Python and tfsec 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 tfsec?
Choose prowler if you want the larger community (14,830 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose tfsec if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.