head to head · open source
crowdsec vs thc-hydra
crowdsec has 14,956 GitHub stars, 719 forks, 296 open issues and last shipped yesterday. thc-hydra has 12,306 stars, 2,671 forks, 50 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. crowdsec leads on adoption by 22% (14,956 vs 12,306 stars). crowdsec is written in Go under MIT; thc-hydra is written in C under AGPL-3.0. crowdsec has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, thc-hydra 22%. 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
| crowdsec | thc-hydra | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 15K | ★ 12K |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | C |
| Last push | 2026-09-24 | 2026-07-30 |
| Forks | ⑂ 719 | ⑂ 2.7K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick crowdsec if
- You weight community size — 15K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick thc-hydra if
- You want the thc-hydra feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C
- You evaluated both and thc-hydra fits your workflow better
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 →
About thc-hydra
Hydra is an AGPL 3.0 licensed, C based login cracker that attacks dozens of network protocols in parallel, built for security researchers and penetration testing consultants who need to demonstrate how easily a remote system can be reached with weak credentials.
read the full thc-hydra overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is crowdsec or thc-hydra more popular?
crowdsec has 14,956 GitHub stars and thc-hydra has 12,306. crowdsec has the larger community by that measure.
Are crowdsec and thc-hydra free?
Both are open source. crowdsec is licensed under MIT and thc-hydra under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between crowdsec and thc-hydra?
crowdsec is written in Go and thc-hydra in C. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, crowdsec or thc-hydra?
Choose crowdsec if you want the larger community (14,956 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose thc-hydra if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.