head to head · open source
Shelf vs cdxgen
Shelf has 3,014 GitHub stars, 367 forks, 181 open issues and last shipped yesterday. cdxgen has 1,073 stars, 261 forks, 420 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Shelf leads on adoption by 181% (3,014 vs 1,073 stars). Shelf is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; cdxgen is written in JavaScript under Apache-2.0. Shelf has attracted 12% as many forks as stars, cdxgen 24%. 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 | cdxgen | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 3.0K | ★ 1.1K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 367 | ⑂ 261 |
| 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 cdxgen if
- You want the cdxgen feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and cdxgen 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 cdxgen
cdxgen is a CLI tool, library, REPL, and server that creates, validates, signs, and verifies CycloneDX Bill of Materials documents from source code and container images, and it is aimed at developers, AppSec engineers, compliance teams, and platform teams that need machine readable BOMs inside a CI/CD pipeline.
read the full cdxgen overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Shelf or cdxgen more popular?
Shelf has 3,014 GitHub stars and cdxgen has 1,073. Shelf has the larger community by that measure.
Are Shelf and cdxgen free?
Both are open source. Shelf is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and cdxgen under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Shelf and cdxgen?
Shelf is written in TypeScript and cdxgen in JavaScript. 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 cdxgen?
Choose Shelf if you want the larger community (3,014 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose cdxgen if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.