head to head · open source
gitleaks vs rowboat
gitleaks has 29,364 GitHub stars, 2,236 forks, 481 open issues and last shipped 9 days ago. rowboat has 17,871 stars, 1,776 forks, 167 open issues and last shipped yesterday. gitleaks leads on adoption by 64% (29,364 vs 17,871 stars). gitleaks is written in Go under MIT; rowboat is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. gitleaks has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, rowboat 10%. rowboat 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
| gitleaks | rowboat | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 29K | ★ 18K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-09 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.2K | ⑂ 1.8K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick gitleaks if
- You weight community size — 29K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick rowboat if
- You want the rowboat feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and rowboat fits your workflow better
About gitleaks
Gitleaks is an MIT licensed, Go based command line tool that detects hardcoded secrets such as passwords, API keys, and tokens in git repositories, files, and standard input, and it serves developers and security teams that need to keep credentials out of source control.
read the full gitleaks overview →
About rowboat
Rowboat is an open source desktop AI coworker, licensed Apache 2.0 and written in TypeScript, that maintains a memory of your work as a local Markdown knowledge graph and provides built in surfaces — email, notes, browser, code mode, meeting notes — for acting on that memory.
read the full rowboat overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is gitleaks or rowboat more popular?
gitleaks has 29,364 GitHub stars and rowboat has 17,871. gitleaks has the larger community by that measure.
Are gitleaks and rowboat free?
Both are open source. gitleaks is licensed under MIT and rowboat under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between gitleaks and rowboat?
gitleaks is written in Go and rowboat 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, gitleaks or rowboat?
Choose gitleaks if you want the larger community (29,364 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose rowboat if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.