head to head · open source
trivy vs chef
trivy has 38,915 GitHub stars, 818 forks, 269 open issues and last shipped yesterday. chef has 8,259 stars, 2,521 forks, 411 open issues and last shipped yesterday. trivy leads on adoption by 371% (38,915 vs 8,259 stars). trivy is written in Go under Apache-2.0; chef is written in Ruby under Apache-2.0. trivy has attracted 2% as many forks as stars, chef 31%. chef was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (hacktoberfest), 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
| trivy | chef | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 39K | ★ 8.3K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Ruby |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 818 | ⑂ 2.5K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick trivy if
- You weight community size — 39K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick chef if
- You want the chef feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Ruby
- You evaluated both and chef fits your workflow better
About trivy
[![GitHub Release][release img]][release] [![Test][test img]][test] [![Go Report Card][go report img]][go report] [![License: Apache 2.0][license img]][license] [![GitHub Downloads][github downloads img]][release] ![Docker Pulls][docker pulls] [📖 Documentation][docs] Trivy ([pronunciation][pronunciation]) is a comprehensive and versatile security scanner. Trivy has scanners that look for security issues, and targets where it can find those issues. Targets (what Trivy can scan): Container Image Filesystem Git Repository (remote) Virtual Machine Image Kubernetes Scanners (what Trivy can find there): OS packages…
read the full trivy overview →
About chef
Chef Infra Umbrella Project : Chef Infra Project State : Active Issues Response Time Maximum : 14 days Pull Request Response Time Maximum : 14 days Getting Started Chef Infra is a configuration management tool designed to bring automation to your entire infrastructure. Want to try Chef Infra? For Chef Infra usage, please refer to Learn Chef, our self paced, entirely free learning platform. Learn Chef also includes module based training for Chef Infra, as well as Chef Automate, Chef Habitat, and Chef InSpec. Other useful resources for Chef Infra users: Documentation: Source: Tickets/Issues: Slack: Chef Community…
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Frequently asked questions
Is trivy or chef more popular?
trivy has 38,915 GitHub stars and chef has 8,259. trivy has the larger community by that measure.
Are trivy and chef free?
Both are open source. trivy is licensed under Apache-2.0 and chef under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between trivy and chef?
trivy is written in Go and chef in Ruby. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, trivy or chef?
Choose trivy if you want the larger community (38,915 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose chef if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.