head to head · open source
ralph vs cdxgen
ralph has 2,516 GitHub stars, 593 forks, 124 open issues and last shipped 8 days ago. cdxgen has 1,073 stars, 261 forks, 420 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. ralph leads on adoption by 134% (2,516 vs 1,073 stars). ralph is written in Python under Apache-2.0; cdxgen is written in JavaScript under Apache-2.0. ralph has attracted 24% as many forks as stars, cdxgen 24%. cdxgen was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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
| ralph | cdxgen | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 2.5K | ★ 1.1K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-10 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 593 | ⑂ 261 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick ralph if
- You weight community size — 2.5K 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 cdxgen if
- You want the cdxgen feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and cdxgen fits your workflow better
About ralph
Ralph is an open source asset management, DCIM, and CMDB system written in Python and built with Django. It is intended for organizations that need to manage data center hardware and back office hardware in one place under the Apache 2.0 license. The project lives in the business software and operations ecosystem.
read the full ralph overview →
About cdxgen
cdxgen is a CLI tool, library, REPL, and server that creates, validates, signs, and verifies CycloneDX Bill of Materials documents from source code and container images, and it is aimed at developers, AppSec engineers, compliance teams, and platform teams that need machine readable BOMs inside a CI/CD pipeline.
read the full cdxgen overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is ralph or cdxgen more popular?
ralph has 2,516 GitHub stars and cdxgen has 1,073. ralph has the larger community by that measure.
Are ralph and cdxgen free?
Both are open source. ralph is licensed under Apache-2.0 and cdxgen under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between ralph and cdxgen?
ralph is written in Python and cdxgen in JavaScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, ralph or cdxgen?
Choose ralph if you want the larger community (2,516 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose cdxgen if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.