gopass vs Knox

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted password managers options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

Not the right match-up?
FeaturegopassKnox
CategoryPassword ManagersPassword Managers
LicenseMITApache-2.0
LanguageGoGo
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM32 MB256 MB
Deploymentbinary, bare-metal, sourcedocker, binary, source
GitHub stars★ 7,072★ 1,268
First released20172016
Replaces1Password, LastPassHashiCorp Vault, AWS Secrets Manager

Why pick each one

Choose gopass if…

  • Great for teams using git
  • Single static binary
gopass details

Choose Knox if…

  • Battle-tested at Pinterest
  • Simple Go service
Knox details

Frequently asked questions

Is gopass or Knox better?

Neither is universally better. gopass has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are gopass and Knox free and open-source?

Yes. gopass is licensed under MIT and Knox under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run gopass and Knox with Docker?

gopass: check the project docs for container support. Knox: yes.

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