head to head · open source
Zen vs helm-secrets
Zen has 4,347 GitHub stars, 145 forks, 14 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. helm-secrets has 2,037 stars, 156 forks, 1 open issues and last shipped 6 days ago. Zen leads on adoption by 113% (4,347 vs 2,037 stars). Zen is written in Go under MIT; helm-secrets is written in Shell under Apache-2.0. Zen has attracted 3% as many forks as stars, helm-secrets 8%. Zen 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
| Zen | helm-secrets | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 4.3K | ★ 2.0K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Shell |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-10-30 |
| Forks | ⑂ 145 | ⑂ 156 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Zen if
- You weight community size — 4.3K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick helm-secrets if
- You want the helm-secrets feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Shell
- You evaluated both and helm-secrets fits your workflow better
About Zen
Zen: Your Comprehensive Ad Blocker and Privacy Guard There is, simply, no way, to ignore privacy. Because a citizenry’s freedoms are interdependent, to surrender your own privacy is really to surrender everyone’s. Edward Snowden, Permanent Record Website • Mastodon • Bluesky • Discord • Documentation Zen is an open source system wide ad blocker and privacy guard for Windows, macOS, and Linux. It works by setting up a proxy that intercepts HTTP requests from all applications, and blocks those serving ads, tracking scripts that monitor your behavior, malware, and other unwanted content. By operating at the system…
About helm-secrets
helm secrets ⭐ Don't forget to star this repository! ⭐ About helm secrets is a Helm plugin to decrypt encrypted Helm value files on the fly. Use sops to encrypt value files and store them in git. Store your secrets in a cloud native secret manager like AWS SecretManager, Azure KeyVault or HashiCorp Vault and inject them inside value files or templates. Use helm secret in your favorite deployment tool or GitOps Operator like ArgoCD Who’s actually using helm secrets? If you are using helm secrets in your company or organization, we would like to invite you to create a PR to add your information to this file…
read the full helm-secrets overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Zen or helm-secrets more popular?
Zen has 4,347 GitHub stars and helm-secrets has 2,037. Zen has the larger community by that measure.
Are Zen and helm-secrets free?
Both are open source. Zen is licensed under MIT and helm-secrets under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Zen and helm-secrets?
Zen is written in Go and helm-secrets in Shell. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Zen or helm-secrets?
Choose Zen if you want the larger community (4,347 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose helm-secrets if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.