head to head · open source
rundeck vs ossec-hids
rundeck has 6,304 GitHub stars, 987 forks, 81 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. ossec-hids has 5,057 stars, 1,074 forks, 125 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. rundeck leads on adoption by 25% (6,304 vs 5,057 stars). rundeck is written in Groovy under Apache-2.0; ossec-hids is written in C under GPL-2.0. rundeck has attracted 16% as many forks as stars, ossec-hids 21%. rundeck 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| rundeck | ossec-hids | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 6.3K | ★ 5.1K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-2.0 |
| Written in | Groovy | C |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 987 | ⑂ 1.1K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick rundeck if
- You weight community size — 6.3K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Groovy
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick ossec-hids if
- You want the ossec-hids feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C
- You evaluated both and ossec-hids fits your workflow better
About rundeck
Rundeck is an open source runbook automation service maintained by PagerDuty, distributed under the Apache License 2.0 and published from the rundeck.org homepage. It provides a web console, command line tools, and a WebAPI, and its stated purpose is to enable self service operations by giving specific users access to existing tools, services, and scripts. The repository is 16 years old and lives in the DevOps and operations tooling ecosystem, alongside topics such as ansible, automation, deployment, audit, ops, and devops tools.
read the full rundeck overview →
About ossec-hids
OSSEC is an open source host based intrusion detection system written in C and released under the GNU General Public License version 2. It combines several security functions into one platform: log analysis, file integrity checking, policy monitoring, rootkit detection, real time alerting, and active response. The project describes itself as a full platform to monitor and control systems, mixing the aspects of HIDS, log monitoring, and SIM/SIEM into a single solution. It lives in the security and compliance tooling ecosystem, with topics spanning intrusion detection, file integrity management, log analysis, PCI D…
read the full ossec-hids 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 rundeck or ossec-hids more popular?
rundeck has 6,304 GitHub stars and ossec-hids has 5,057. rundeck has the larger community by that measure.
Are rundeck and ossec-hids free?
Both are open source. rundeck is licensed under Apache-2.0 and ossec-hids under GPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between rundeck and ossec-hids?
rundeck is written in Groovy and ossec-hids in C. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, rundeck or ossec-hids?
Choose rundeck if you want the larger community (6,304 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose ossec-hids if its feature set, stack or GPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.