head to head · open source
teleport vs windows_hardening
teleport has 21,061 GitHub stars, 2,181 forks, 3,262 open issues and last shipped 14 days ago. windows_hardening has 2,673 stars, 332 forks, 21 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. teleport leads on adoption by 688% (21,061 vs 2,673 stars). teleport is written in Go under AGPL-3.0; windows_hardening is written in PowerShell under MIT. teleport has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, windows_hardening 12%. windows_hardening was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (audit), 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 | windows_hardening | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 21K | ★ 2.7K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | PowerShell |
| Last push | 2026-10-20 | 2026-10-31 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.2K | ⑂ 332 |
| 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 windows_hardening if
- You want the windows_hardening feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches PowerShell
- You evaluated both and windows_hardening 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 windows_hardening
HardeningKitty and Windows Hardening Introduction The project started as a simple hardening list for Windows 10. After some time, HardeningKitty was created to simplify the hardening of Windows. Now, HardeningKitty supports guidelines from Microsoft, CIS Benchmarks, DoD STIG and BSI SiSyPHuS Win10. And of course my own hardening list. This is a hardening checklist that can be used in private and business environments for hardening Windows 10. The checklist can be used for all Windows versions, but in Windows 10 Home the Group Policy Editor is not integrated and the adjustment must be done directly in the…
read the full windows_hardening overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is teleport or windows_hardening more popular?
teleport has 21,061 GitHub stars and windows_hardening has 2,673. teleport has the larger community by that measure.
Are teleport and windows_hardening free?
Both are open source. teleport is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and windows_hardening under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between teleport and windows_hardening?
teleport is written in Go and windows_hardening in PowerShell. 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 windows_hardening?
Choose teleport if you want the larger community (21,061 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose windows_hardening if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.