FOSSology vs license-comply
FOSSology
fossology.orglicense-comply
github.comSide by side
| Figure | FOSSology | license-comply |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | Yes | — |
| Web | Yes | — |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | — |
| API | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 2 | 2 |
| Spec score · Open Source License Compliance Software | 8.8 (#2) | 8.0 (#11) |
| Legal limitation | Project documentation explicitly says FOSSology does not provide legal advice. | The project says its output is not legal advice and recommends consulting qualified legal counsel for situation-specific advice. |
| Purpose | FOSSology is an open-source license-compliance system and toolkit for scanning software for license, copyright, and export-control information. | Scans Python project dependencies for open-source licenses and analyzes compliance risks based on project type. |
| Report formats | FOSSology exports README notices, hierarchical license lists, SPDX 2.0 tag-value or RDF/XML, and Debian DEP5 files. | Reports can be generated in terminal, Markdown, HTML, and JSON formats. |
| Reports | FOSSology can generate SPDX 2.0 exports, Debian copyright files, hierarchical file lists with license identifiers, and Readme files containing identified license texts and copyright information. | Generates terminal, Markdown, HTML, and JSON reports, with CI mode and exit codes for build pipelines. |
| Support | The project provides voluntary community support through its mailing list and invites users to report bugs through GitHub issues. | The project invites bug reports and feature requests through GitHub issues and welcomes pull requests. |
Plans
In their own words
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.
license-comply
license-comply has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.