# BFG Repo-Cleaner vs detect-secrets

**Leader by vioscaleAI score:** detect-secrets

| Attribute | BFG Repo-Cleaner | detect-secrets |
|---|---|---|
| **vioscaleAI score** | 29.3 (63% (medium)) | 40.4 (66% (medium)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | 0 | 0 |
| adoption.dependent_repos | 60 | 276 |
| adoption.github_stars | 12,201 | 4,652 |
| content.faq | `[{"answer":"A command-line tool that removes large blobs and sensitive data from Git repositories. Distributed as free and open source software under the GNU General Public License. It is indexed under Secrets Scanning.","source":"https://rtyley.github.io/bfg-repo-cleaner","question":"What is BFG Repo-Cleaner?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"BFG Repo-Cleaner is open source, so it can be self-hosted and used at no licence cost. It is released under the GPL-3.0 licence. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://rtyley.github.io/bfg-repo-cleaner","question":"Is BFG Repo-Cleaner free to use?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"BFG Repo-Cleaner supports a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://rtyley.github.io/bfg-repo-cleaner","question":"What platforms does BFG Repo-Cleaner support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. BFG Repo-Cleaner can be deployed self-hosted, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.","source":"https://rtyley.github.io/bfg-repo-cleaner","question":"Can BFG Repo-Cleaner be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. BFG Repo-Cleaner is published under the GPL-3.0 licence, a copyleft licence, so check its terms before embedding it in a closed-source product. Licence terms can change between releases, so verify against the repository for the version you intend to use.","source":"https://github.com/rtyley/bfg-repo-cleaner","question":"Is BFG Repo-Cleaner open source?","confidence":0.95}]` | `[{"answer":"An open-source security tool that scans code repositories to identify exposed secrets such as API keys, passwords, and tokens using pattern matching and heuristic filters. Designed with enterprise needs in mind, supporting custom plugins, baseline auditing, and integration with CI/CD pipelines. It is indexed under Secrets Scanning.","source":"https://github.com/pricing","question":"What is detect-secrets?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"detect-secrets is open source, so it can be self-hosted and used at no licence cost. It is released under the Apache-2.0 licence. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://github.com/pricing","question":"Is detect-secrets free to use?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"detect-secrets supports a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://github.com/pricing","question":"What platforms does detect-secrets support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. detect-secrets can be deployed self-hosted, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.","source":"https://github.com/pricing","question":"Can detect-secrets be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed 21 integrations for detect-secrets, including AWS, Azure, GitHub, GitLab, Slack, Stripe, Twilio and SendGrid, plus 13 more. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.","source":"https://github.com/pricing","question":"What does detect-secrets integrate with?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. detect-secrets is published under the Apache-2.0 licence, a permissive licence that generally allows commercial use and modification. Licence terms can change between releases, so verify against the repository for the version you intend to use.","source":"https://github.com/yelp/detect-secrets","question":"Is detect-secrets open source?","confidence":0.95},{"answer":"detect-secrets is available worldwide. The vendor is headquartered in the United States.","source":"https://github.com/pricing","question":"Where is detect-secrets available?","confidence":0.75}]` |
| deployment.options | `{"self_hosted":true}` | `{"self_hosted":true}` |
| description.long | A Scala-based utility that removes large or problematic files from Git repository history more efficiently than the standard git-filter-branch command. | An open-source utility that scans codebases for exposed secrets using pre-commit hooks and customizable detection rules. It analyzes repositories against a library of detectors for common credential types and supports custom plugins. |
| features.capabilities | `{"pricing_model":"open_source","deployment_model":"local_cli_only","git_repository_historical_scanning":true}` | `{"pricing_model":"open_source","deployment_model":"local_cli_only","slack_teams_jira_scanning":true,"compliance_audit_reporting":true,"custom_regex_rules_support":true,"pre_commit_developer_hooks":true,"high_entropy_regex_detection":true,"active_token_validation_engine":true,"git_repository_historical_scanning":true}` |
| integrations.count | - | 22 |
| integrations.list | - | `[{"name":"AWS"},{"name":"Azure"},{"name":"GitHub"},{"name":"GitLab"},{"name":"Slack"},{"name":"Stripe"},{"name":"Twilio"},{"name":"SendGrid"},{"name":"Mailchimp"},{"name":"OpenAI"},{"name":"Discord"},{"name":"Telegram"},{"name":"npm"},{"name":"IBM Cloud"},{"name":"IBM Cloudant"},{"name":"Artifactory"},{"name":"Square"},{"name":"Softlayer"},{"name":"PyPI"},{"name":"Private Key detection"},{"name":"JWT Token detection"},{"name":"Basic Auth detection"},{"name":"pre-commit","native":true,"direction":"bidirectional"}]` |
| language.primary | Scala | Python |
| license.spdx | GPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| market.availability | - | `{"hqCountry":"US","primaryMarkets":[],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` |
| platform.support | `{"cli":true}` | `{"cli":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"open_source","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://rtyley.github.io/bfg-repo-cleaner","retrievedAt":"2026-10-15T20:24:15.655Z"}` | `{"type":"open_source","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://github.com/pricing","retrievedAt":"2026-10-14T21:31:00.596Z"}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | yes |
| pricing.model | open_source | open_source |
| pricing.price_level | free | free |
| pricing.transparent | - | yes |
| release.cadence_days | 118 | 115 |
| release.history | `[{"url":"https://github.com/rtyley/bfg-repo-cleaner/releases/tag/v1.15.0","date":"2025-01-18T21:34:32Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.15.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/rtyley/bfg-repo-cleaner/releases/tag/v1.14.0","date":"2021-02-27T16:46:21Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.14.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/rtyley/bfg-repo-cleaner/releases/tag/v1.13.0","date":"2018-01-31T09:26:15Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.13.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/rtyley/bfg-repo-cleaner/releases/tag/v1.12.5","date":"2015-10-01T22:41:36Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.12.5"},{"url":"https://github.com/rtyley/bfg-repo-cleaner/releases/tag/v1.12.4","date":"2015-08-06T08:58:16Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.12.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/rtyley/bfg-repo-cleaner/releases/tag/git-lfs-alpha","date":"2015-04-09T10:11:24Z","type":"prerelease","version":"git-lfs-alpha"},{"url":"https://github.com/rtyley/bfg-repo-cleaner/releases/tag/v1.12.0","date":"2015-01-01T20:14:58Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.12.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/rtyley/bfg-repo-cleaner/releases/tag/v1.11.5","date":"2014-04-20T14:20:59Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.11.5"},{"url":"https://github.com/rtyley/bfg-repo-cleaner/releases/tag/v1.11.2","date":"2014-03-25T09:49:27Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.11.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/rtyley/bfg-repo-cleaner/releases/tag/v1.11.1","date":"2014-02-01T17:33:31Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.11.1"}]` | `[{"url":"https://github.com/Yelp/detect-secrets/releases/tag/v1.5.0","date":"2024-05-06T18:05:06Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.5.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/Yelp/detect-secrets/releases/tag/v1.4.0","date":"2022-10-05T17:13:10Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.4.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/Yelp/detect-secrets/releases/tag/v1.3.0","date":"2022-07-22T15:22:53Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.3.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/Yelp/detect-secrets/releases/tag/v1.2.0","date":"2022-02-16T22:16:52Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.2.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/Yelp/detect-secrets/releases/tag/v1.1.0","date":"2021-04-14T21:14:42Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.1.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/Yelp/detect-secrets/releases/tag/v0.14.3","date":"2020-10-01T16:40:07Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.14.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/Yelp/detect-secrets/releases/tag/v0.14.2","date":"2020-07-31T16:51:26Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.14.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/Yelp/detect-secrets/releases/tag/v0.14.1","date":"2020-07-13T18:46:48Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.14.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/Yelp/detect-secrets/releases/tag/v0.14.0","date":"2020-07-09T21:06:25Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.14.0"}]` |
| security.scorecard | 2.8 | - |
| security.trust_center | - | https://github.com/security |
| security.vulnerabilities | `{"count":0,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=homebrew&package_name=bfg&per_page=100","last_12m":0,"max_severity":null}` | `{"count":0,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=pypi&package_name=detect-secrets&per_page=100","last_12m":0,"max_severity":null}` |

## Capabilities (Secrets Scanning)

| Capability | BFG Repo-Cleaner | detect-secrets |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Capabilities** |  |  |
| Deployment model | Local CLI only | Local CLI only |
| Git repository historical scanning | ✓ | ✓ |
| Pre commit developer hooks | - | ✓ |
| Active token validation engine | - | ✓ |
| High entropy regex detection | - | ✓ |
| Slack teams jira scanning | - | ✓ |
| Automated key revocation apis | - | - |
| Custom regex rules support | - | ✓ |
| Ci cd pipeline build blocking | - | - |
| Compliance audit reporting | - | ✓ |
| SOC2 type ii | - | - |
| ISO 27001 | - | - |
| Pricing model | Open source | Open source |

*Source: vioscaleAI. Generated 2026-10-16T18:33:40.241Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*