head to head · open source
SafeLine vs Ocelot
SafeLine has 22,606 GitHub stars, 1,533 forks, 69 open issues and last shipped 8 days ago. Ocelot has 8,715 stars, 1,683 forks, 57 open issues and last shipped yesterday. SafeLine leads on adoption by 159% (22,606 vs 8,715 stars). SafeLine is written in Go under GPL-3.0; Ocelot is written in C# under MIT. SafeLine has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, Ocelot 19%. Ocelot was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (api-gateway), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
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 | Ocelot | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 23K | ★ 8.7K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | C# |
| Last push | 2026-09-10 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.5K | ⑂ 1.7K |
| 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 Ocelot if
- You want the Ocelot feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches C#
- You evaluated both and Ocelot 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 Ocelot
Ocelot is a .NET API gateway built as a series of ASP.NET Core middlewares arranged in a specific order. It is aimed at teams running a microservices or service oriented architecture on .NET that need a unified point of entry into their system, though the README notes it will work with anything that speaks HTTP(S) and runs on any platform that ASP.NET Core supports. The project lives in the .NET ecosystem, is written in C , and is distributed under the MIT license.
read the full Ocelot overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is SafeLine or Ocelot more popular?
SafeLine has 22,606 GitHub stars and Ocelot has 8,715. SafeLine has the larger community by that measure.
Are SafeLine and Ocelot free?
Both are open source. SafeLine is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Ocelot under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between SafeLine and Ocelot?
SafeLine is written in Go and Ocelot 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, SafeLine or Ocelot?
Choose SafeLine if you want the larger community (22,606 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Ocelot if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.