head to head · open source
Shelf vs bomber
Shelf has 3,014 GitHub stars, 367 forks, 181 open issues and last shipped yesterday. bomber has 624 stars, 56 forks, 29 open issues and last shipped 7 months ago. Shelf leads on adoption by 383% (3,014 vs 624 stars). Shelf is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; bomber is written in Go under MPL-2.0. Shelf has attracted 12% as many forks as stars, bomber 9%. Shelf 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
| Shelf | bomber | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 3.0K | ★ 624 |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MPL-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-02-10 |
| Forks | ⑂ 367 | ⑂ 56 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Shelf if
- You weight community size — 3.0K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick bomber if
- You want the bomber feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and bomber fits your workflow better
About Shelf
Shelf is a free, open source platform for tracking physical assets, including equipment, devices, tools, vehicles, props, and inventory. It is built for teams that need to know what they have, where it is, and who is using it. The project sits in the IT asset management, equipment management, scheduling, and operations software ecosystem.
read the full Shelf overview →
About bomber
bomber is a Go command line application that scans Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) files for security vulnerabilities and component licence information, built for security and DevSecOps teams that need to assess third party software they cannot read the source of.
read the full bomber overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Shelf or bomber more popular?
Shelf has 3,014 GitHub stars and bomber has 624. Shelf has the larger community by that measure.
Are Shelf and bomber free?
Both are open source. Shelf is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and bomber under MPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Shelf and bomber?
Shelf is written in TypeScript and bomber in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Shelf or bomber?
Choose Shelf if you want the larger community (3,014 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose bomber if its feature set, stack or MPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.