head to head · open source
aircrack-ng vs flashlight
aircrack-ng has 7,659 GitHub stars, 1,375 forks, 462 open issues and last shipped 11 days ago. flashlight has 1,605 stars, 48 forks, 29 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. aircrack-ng leads on adoption by 377% (7,659 vs 1,605 stars). aircrack-ng is written in C under GPL-2.0; flashlight is written in TypeScript under MIT. aircrack-ng has attracted 18% as many forks as stars, flashlight 3%. flashlight was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (audit), 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
| aircrack-ng | flashlight | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 7.7K | ★ 1.6K |
| License | GPL-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | C | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-09 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.4K | ⑂ 48 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick aircrack-ng if
- You weight community size — 7.7K stars and counting
- You want the GPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick flashlight if
- You want the flashlight feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and flashlight fits your workflow better
About aircrack-ng
Aircrack ng is a GPL 2.0 licensed suite of WiFi security auditing tools written in C, intended for network auditors, penetration testers, and compliance and risk management teams who assess wireless networks on hardware they control.
read the full aircrack-ng overview →
About flashlight
Flashlight is an open source Android mobile performance audit tool written in TypeScript and licensed under MIT. It is positioned as a Lighthouse for Mobile tool, and it gives Android applications a performance score by aggregating different metrics. The project lives in the Android mobile ecosystem and covers native Android apps, React Native apps, and Flutter apps.
read the full flashlight overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is aircrack-ng or flashlight more popular?
aircrack-ng has 7,659 GitHub stars and flashlight has 1,605. aircrack-ng has the larger community by that measure.
Are aircrack-ng and flashlight free?
Both are open source. aircrack-ng is licensed under GPL-2.0 and flashlight under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between aircrack-ng and flashlight?
aircrack-ng is written in C and flashlight in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, aircrack-ng or flashlight?
Choose aircrack-ng if you want the larger community (7,659 stars) or its GPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose flashlight if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.