head to head · open source
ecapture vs tenzir
ecapture has 15,490 GitHub stars, 1,647 forks, 4 open issues and last shipped yesterday. tenzir has 762 stars, 110 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped today. ecapture leads on adoption by 1,933% (15,490 vs 762 stars). ecapture is written in C under Apache-2.0; tenzir is written in C++ under BSD-3-Clause. ecapture has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, tenzir 14%. tenzir 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
| ecapture | tenzir | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 15K | ★ 762 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | BSD-3-Clause |
| Written in | C | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-10-07 | 2026-10-08 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.6K | ⑂ 110 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick ecapture if
- You weight community size — 15K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick tenzir if
- You want the tenzir feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-3-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You evaluated both and tenzir fits your workflow better
About ecapture
eCapture (旁观者) is an open source eBPF tool that captures SSL/TLS plaintext, database queries, and shell history on Linux and Android for security auditors, network engineers, and self hosters who need visibility into encrypted traffic without intercepting it.
read the full ecapture overview →
About tenzir
Tenzir is a data pipeline engine for security teams — written in C++ and released under the BSD 3 Clause licence — that lets SOC analysts, detection engineers, and incident responders collect, transform, enrich, and route security telemetry instead of only storing it.
read the full tenzir overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is ecapture or tenzir more popular?
ecapture has 15,490 GitHub stars and tenzir has 762. ecapture has the larger community by that measure.
Are ecapture and tenzir free?
Both are open source. ecapture is licensed under Apache-2.0 and tenzir under BSD-3-Clause. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between ecapture and tenzir?
ecapture is written in C and tenzir in C++. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, ecapture or tenzir?
Choose ecapture if you want the larger community (15,490 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose tenzir if its feature set, stack or BSD-3-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.