head to head · open source
SafeLine vs karate
SafeLine has 22,606 GitHub stars, 1,533 forks, 69 open issues and last shipped 8 days ago. karate has 8,957 stars, 2,044 forks, 18 open issues and last shipped yesterday. SafeLine leads on adoption by 152% (22,606 vs 8,957 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.
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Side by side
| SafeLine | karate | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 23K | ★ 9.0K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | Java |
| Last push | 2026-09-10 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.5K | ⑂ 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 is a self hosted web application firewall and reverse proxy, written in Go and licensed under GPL 3.0, that filters, monitors, and blocks malicious HTTP/S traffic before it reaches a web application — built for developers, AppSec engineers, and blue teams who want to run edge protection on their own infrastructure.
read the full SafeLine overview →
About karate
Karate is an open source, MIT licensed Java framework that combines API testing, mocks, performance testing and UI automation into a single unified tool, aimed at teams that need to test APIs and services without stitching several separate tools together.
read the full karate overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is SafeLine or karate more popular?
SafeLine has 22,606 GitHub stars and karate has 8,957. 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 (22,606 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose karate if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.