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ClearlyDefined vs FOSSology

ClearlyDefined

clearlydefined.io

FOSSology

fossology.org

Side by side

FigureClearlyDefinedFOSSology
Price fromFreeFree
Free planYesYes
Free trial——
Open source—Yes
WebYesYes
Windows—Yes
macOS—Yes
Linux—Yes
APIYesYes
Self-hostedYesYes
Plans published12
Spec score · Open Source License Compliance Software8.0 (#10)8.8 (#2)
PurposeClearlyDefined is an open source project that crowdsources the gathering, curation, and upstreaming of licensing, security, and other data about free and open source projects.FOSSology is an open-source license-compliance system and toolkit for scanning software for license, copyright, and export-control information.

Plans

ClearlyDefined

  • ClearlyDefinedFree

ClearlyDefined pricing →

FOSSology

  • FOSSologyFree
  • FOSSology open-source softwareFree

FOSSology pricing →

In their own words

ClearlyDefined

ClearlyDefined has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.

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FOSSology

FOSSology is an open-source system for examining software for license, copyright, and export-control information. Upload individual files or packages, then unpack and scan them with selected agents. Nomos looks for license indicators through phrases, regular expressions, and heuristics; Monk checks text against stored license texts or phrases supplied by users. Its web interface supports review of findings, license-text management, bulk recognition, aggregated file views, and reusing reviews for files with matching hashes. It can identify copyright statements and presents keyword-based findings that users can review for possible export-control relevance. Reports include SPDX 2.0 exports, Debian copyright files, hierarchical file lists with license identifiers, and Readme files with identified license and copyright details. A REST API supports CI/CD use, uploads, and scan triggers from other applications; the command line can retrieve SPDX files. Deployment options include Docker, Vagrant with VirtualBox, or source installation. It is free, with on-premise deployment options. One stated limit: it cannot determine which libraries produced a binary; binary analysis tools are needed for that task.

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