head to head · open source
vuls vs Tracecat
vuls has 12,263 GitHub stars, 1,243 forks, 92 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Tracecat has 3,805 stars, 417 forks, 137 open issues and last shipped yesterday. vuls leads on adoption by 222% (12,263 vs 3,805 stars). vuls is written in Go under GPL-3.0; Tracecat is written in Python under AGPL-3.0. vuls has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, Tracecat 11%. Tracecat was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (security), 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 | Tracecat | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 12K | ★ 3.8K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.2K | ⑂ 417 |
| 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 Tracecat if
- You want the Tracecat feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and Tracecat 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 Tracecat
Tracecat is an open source security automation platform for teams and AI agents. It lives in the security operations and incident response ecosystem, combining agents, workflows, lookup tables, and case management in one Python application. The project is licensed under AGPL 3.0, with a separate paid Enterprise Edition directory and feature gates.
read the full Tracecat overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is vuls or Tracecat more popular?
vuls has 12,263 GitHub stars and Tracecat has 3,805. vuls has the larger community by that measure.
Are vuls and Tracecat free?
Both are open source. vuls is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Tracecat under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between vuls and Tracecat?
vuls is written in Go and Tracecat 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, vuls or Tracecat?
Choose vuls if you want the larger community (12,263 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Tracecat if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.