head to head · open source
teleport vs checkov
teleport has 21,061 GitHub stars, 2,181 forks, 3,262 open issues and last shipped 14 days ago. checkov has 9,127 stars, 1,452 forks, 170 open issues and last shipped yesterday. teleport leads on adoption by 131% (21,061 vs 9,127 stars). teleport is written in Go under AGPL-3.0; checkov is written in Python under Apache-2.0. teleport has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, checkov 16%. checkov was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (kubernetes), 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
| teleport | checkov | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 21K | ★ 9.1K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Python |
| Last push | 2026-10-20 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.2K | ⑂ 1.5K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick teleport if
- You weight community size — 21K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick checkov if
- You want the checkov feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and checkov fits your workflow better
About teleport
Teleport provides connectivity, authentication, access controls and audit for infrastructure. You might use Teleport to: Set up single sign on (SSO) for all of your cloud and on prem infrastructure. Protect access to servers, Kubernetes clusters, databases, Windows desktops, web applications, and cloud APIs without long lived keys or passwords. Establish secure tunnels to reach resources behind NATs and firewalls without VPNs or bastion hosts. Record and audit activity across SSH, Kubernetes, database, RDP, and web sessions. Apply consistent Role Based and Attribute Based Access Control (RBAC/ABAC) across users…
read the full teleport overview →
About checkov
Checkov is a static code analysis tool for infrastructure as code (IaC) and also a software composition analysis (SCA) tool for images and open source packages. It scans cloud infrastructure provisioned using Terraform, Terraform plan, Cloudformation, AWS SAM, Kubernetes, Helm charts, Kustomize, Dockerfile, Serverless, Bicep, OpenAPI, ARM Templates, or OpenTofu and detects security and compliance misconfigurations using graph based scanning. It performs Software Composition Analysis (SCA) scanning which is a scan of open source packages and images for Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs). Checkov also…
read the full checkov overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is teleport or checkov more popular?
teleport has 21,061 GitHub stars and checkov has 9,127. teleport has the larger community by that measure.
Are teleport and checkov free?
Both are open source. teleport is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and checkov under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between teleport and checkov?
teleport is written in Go and checkov in Python. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, teleport or checkov?
Choose teleport if you want the larger community (21,061 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose checkov if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.