ggshield vs Gitleaks

ggshield is GitGuardian’s command-line tool for finding hardcoded secrets before code is pushed. It can scan local files and repositories, run before commits or in CI pipelines, and act as a pre-receive hook for self-managed version control. It also scans Docker image layers, build arguments, and Dockerfiles. GitGuardian’s documentation describes detection for more than 600 secret types. The open-source CLI uses a closed-source secrets detection library behind GitGuardian’s public API. It runs on macOS, Linux, and Windows, with API and self-hosted options. Standard installation needs Git and a supported, non-end-of-life Python version; standalone packages are an exception. Scans require an API key for a GitGuardian workspace, and the login command can provision and store a personal access token. Files over 1 MB are ignored, and API calls accept up to 20 documents each. The free Starter plan is free, billed Always; it includes up to 25 developers, 10K API calls per month, up to 500 historical scan detections, and unlimited real-time scanning.

Gitleaks is free, MIT-licensed software that detects secrets such as passwords, API keys, and tokens in Git repositories, files, and standard input. It runs on Linux, macOS, Windows, and self-hosted systems. Scans can target repositories, directories, individual files, or streamed data. Custom rules can use Go regular expressions, entropy checks, path matching, keywords, and allowlists. A previous report can serve as a baseline so later scans show only new findings. Output is available in JSON, CSV, JUnit, SARIF, or template formats. The project documents pre-commit hook and GitHub Action use, plus CI/CD, pull-request, and supported VCS workflows for GitHub, GitLab, Azure DevOps, Gitea, and Bitbucket. Installation options include Homebrew, Docker, Go, and prebuilt release binaries. A redaction option masks secrets in logs and standard output, with a default redaction value of 100%. The project describes itself as feature complete, with future releases limited to security patches, and its security policy supports only the latest version.