head to head · open source
PayloadsAllTheThings vs afrog
PayloadsAllTheThings has 80,984 GitHub stars, 17,384 forks, 36 open issues and last shipped 24 days ago. afrog has 4,418 stars, 484 forks, 111 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. PayloadsAllTheThings leads on adoption by 1,733% (80,984 vs 4,418 stars). PayloadsAllTheThings is written in Python under MIT; afrog is written in HTML under MIT. PayloadsAllTheThings has attracted 21% as many forks as stars, afrog 11%. afrog was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (penetration-testing, pentest), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| PayloadsAllTheThings | afrog | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 81K | ★ 4.4K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Python | HTML |
| Last push | 2026-08-27 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 17K | ⑂ 484 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick PayloadsAllTheThings if
- You weight community size — 81K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick afrog if
- You want the afrog feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches HTML
- You evaluated both and afrog fits your workflow better
About PayloadsAllTheThings
Payloads All The Things is an MIT licensed, community maintained collection of web application security payloads, bypass techniques and pentest methodology notes, written for penetration testers, bug bounty hunters, CTF players and red teamers who need a reference they can copy from during an engagement.
read the full PayloadsAllTheThings overview →
About afrog
afrog is an MIT licensed vulnerability scanner built for bug bounty, penetration testing and red teaming, aimed at testers who need fast verification of web targets and network services with low false positives.
read the full afrog overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is PayloadsAllTheThings or afrog more popular?
PayloadsAllTheThings has 80,984 GitHub stars and afrog has 4,418. PayloadsAllTheThings has the larger community by that measure.
Are PayloadsAllTheThings and afrog free?
Both are open source. PayloadsAllTheThings is licensed under MIT and afrog under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between PayloadsAllTheThings and afrog?
PayloadsAllTheThings is written in Python and afrog in HTML. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, PayloadsAllTheThings or afrog?
Choose PayloadsAllTheThings if you want the larger community (80,984 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose afrog if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.