head to head · open source
sops vs headlamp
sops has 23,586 GitHub stars, 1,113 forks, 446 open issues and last shipped yesterday. headlamp has 7,553 stars, 1,201 forks, 1,422 open issues and last shipped yesterday. sops leads on adoption by 212% (23,586 vs 7,553 stars). sops is written in Go under MPL-2.0; headlamp is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. sops has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, headlamp 16%. sops was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (devops), 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
| sops | headlamp | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 24K | ★ 7.6K |
| License | MPL-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.1K | ⑂ 1.2K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick sops if
- You weight community size — 24K stars and counting
- You want the MPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick headlamp if
- You want the headlamp feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and headlamp fits your workflow better
About sops
SOPS: Secrets OPerationS ======================== SOPS is an editor of encrypted files that supports YAML, JSON, ENV, INI and BINARY formats and encrypts with AWS KMS, GCP KMS, Azure Key Vault, HuaweiCloud KMS, age, and PGP. ( demo ) .. image:: .. image:: :target: Documentation You can find the SOPS documentation on getsops.io under "Docs" . Security Please report any security issues privately using GitHub's advisory form . License Mozilla Public License Version 2.0 Authors SOPS was initially launched as a project at Mozilla in 2015 and has been graciously donated to the CNCF as a Sandbox project in 2023, now…
About headlamp
NOTICE: We have recently moved the project under the Kubernetes SIG UI (and the repo under the kubernetes sigs org). Container images are still at ghcr.io. Please bear with us while we may experience some broken links. Headlamp is an easy to use and extensible Kubernetes web UI. Headlamp was created to blend the traditional feature set of other web UIs/dashboards (i.e., to list and view resources) with added functionality. Features Vendor independent / generic Kubernetes UI Works in cluster, or locally as a desktop app Multi cluster Extensible through plugins UI controls reflecting user roles (no deletion/update…
read the full headlamp overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is sops or headlamp more popular?
sops has 23,586 GitHub stars and headlamp has 7,553. sops has the larger community by that measure.
Are sops and headlamp free?
Both are open source. sops is licensed under MPL-2.0 and headlamp under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between sops and headlamp?
sops is written in Go and headlamp in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, sops or headlamp?
Choose sops if you want the larger community (23,586 stars) or its MPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose headlamp if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.