head to head · open source
PayloadsAllTheThings vs crowdsec
PayloadsAllTheThings has 81,182 GitHub stars, 17,411 forks, 36 open issues and last shipped 29 days ago. crowdsec has 14,956 stars, 719 forks, 296 open issues and last shipped yesterday. PayloadsAllTheThings leads on adoption by 443% (81,182 vs 14,956 stars). PayloadsAllTheThings is written in Python under MIT; crowdsec is written in Go under MIT. PayloadsAllTheThings has attracted 21% as many forks as stars, crowdsec 5%. crowdsec was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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 | crowdsec | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 81K | ★ 15K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Go |
| Last push | 2026-08-27 | 2026-09-24 |
| Forks | ⑂ 17K | ⑂ 719 |
| 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 crowdsec if
- You want the crowdsec feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and crowdsec 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 crowdsec
CrowdSec is an open source, MIT licensed intrusion detection and prevention system, WAF and bot detection engine that analyses logs and HTTP requests and blocks malicious IPs at the firewall, reverse proxy or CDN, built for Linux, Windows, Docker and Kubernetes operators who want community sourced threat intelligence sitting behind their own infrastructure.
read the full crowdsec overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is PayloadsAllTheThings or crowdsec more popular?
PayloadsAllTheThings has 81,182 GitHub stars and crowdsec has 14,956. PayloadsAllTheThings has the larger community by that measure.
Are PayloadsAllTheThings and crowdsec free?
Both are open source. PayloadsAllTheThings is licensed under MIT and crowdsec under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between PayloadsAllTheThings and crowdsec?
PayloadsAllTheThings is written in Python and crowdsec in Go. 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 crowdsec?
Choose PayloadsAllTheThings if you want the larger community (81,182 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose crowdsec if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.