head to head · open source
SafeLine vs karate
SafeLine has 23,154 GitHub stars, 1,592 forks, 69 open issues and last shipped 12 days ago. karate has 9,002 stars, 2,048 forks, 18 open issues and last shipped yesterday. SafeLine leads on adoption by 157% (23,154 vs 9,002 stars). SafeLine is written in Go under GPL-3.0; karate is written in Java under MIT. SafeLine has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, karate 23%. karate 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
| SafeLine | karate | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 23K | ★ 9.0K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | Java |
| Last push | 2026-10-22 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.6K | ⑂ 2.0K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick SafeLine if
- You weight community size — 23K stars and counting
- You want the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick karate if
- You want the karate feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and karate fits your workflow better
About SafeLine
SafeLine Make your web apps secure 🏠 Website 📖 Docs 🔍 Live Demo 🙋♂️ Discord 中文版 🏆 Achievements 👋 INTRODUCTION SafeLine is a self hosted WAF(Web Application Firewall) to protect your web apps from attacks and exploits. A web application firewall helps protect web apps by filtering and monitoring HTTP traffic between a web application and the Internet. It typically protects web apps from attacks such as SQL injection , XSS , code injection , os command injection , CRLF injection , ldap injection , xpath injection , RCE , XXE , SSRF , path traversal , backdoor , bruteforce , http flood , bot abused , among…
read the full SafeLine overview →
About karate
Karate The open source tool that combines API testing, mocks, performance testing, and UI automation into a single, unified framework. 📖 Documentation: docs.karatelabs.io Looking for the old README? The previous README monolith is preserved at: github.com/karatelabs/karate/tree/v1.5.2.RC2 Anchor links (e.g. syntax guide , configuration ) can be appended to navigate directly to specific sections. Karate v2 development notes See README V2.md for v2 module descriptions, feature highlights, and migration notes.
read the full karate overview →
More in Developer Tools
Related comparisons
More API Development & Testing projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the API Development & Testing field.
Frequently asked questions
Is SafeLine or karate more popular?
SafeLine has 23,154 GitHub stars and karate has 9,002. SafeLine has the larger community by that measure.
Are SafeLine and karate free?
Both are open source. SafeLine is licensed under GPL-3.0 and karate under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between SafeLine and karate?
SafeLine is written in Go and karate in Java. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, SafeLine or karate?
Choose SafeLine if you want the larger community (23,154 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose karate if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.