head to head · open source
vuls vs osv-scanner
vuls has 12,263 GitHub stars, 1,243 forks, 92 open issues and last shipped yesterday. osv-scanner has 11,049 stars, 794 forks, 113 open issues and last shipped yesterday. vuls leads on adoption by 11% (12,263 vs 11,049 stars). vuls is written in Go under GPL-3.0; osv-scanner is written in Go under Apache-2.0. vuls has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, osv-scanner 7%. osv-scanner was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (security-audit, security-tools), 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
| vuls | osv-scanner | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 12K | ★ 11K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.2K | ⑂ 794 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick vuls if
- You weight community size — 12K stars and counting
- You want the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick osv-scanner if
- You want the osv-scanner feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and osv-scanner fits your workflow better
About vuls
Vuls is an agent less vulnerability scanner written in Go and licensed under GPL 3.0, aimed at system administrators and security teams that must find and track known vulnerabilities across Linux, FreeBSD, Windows and macOS hosts, containers, WordPress installs, programming language libraries and network devices without installing an agent on every machine.
About osv-scanner
OSV Scanner is an Apache 2.0 licensed vulnerability scanner written in Go that connects a project's list of dependencies with the vulnerabilities affecting them, using data from the open OSV.dev database, and it is aimed at developers, maintainers, and security teams who need to find known vulnerabilities in the dependencies they already ship.
read the full osv-scanner overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is vuls or osv-scanner more popular?
vuls has 12,263 GitHub stars and osv-scanner has 11,049. vuls has the larger community by that measure.
Are vuls and osv-scanner free?
Both are open source. vuls is licensed under GPL-3.0 and osv-scanner under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between vuls and osv-scanner?
vuls is written in Go and osv-scanner in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, vuls or osv-scanner?
Choose vuls if you want the larger community (12,263 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose osv-scanner if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.