head to head · open source
crowdsec vs Tracecat
crowdsec has 15,106 GitHub stars, 729 forks, 296 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Tracecat has 3,826 stars, 432 forks, 137 open issues and last shipped today. crowdsec leads on adoption by 295% (15,106 vs 3,826 stars). crowdsec is written in Go under MIT; Tracecat is written in Python under AGPL-3.0. crowdsec has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, Tracecat 11%. Tracecat 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 | Tracecat | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 15K | ★ 3.8K |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | Python |
| Last push | 2026-10-07 | 2026-10-08 |
| Forks | ⑂ 729 | ⑂ 432 |
| 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 Tracecat if
- You want the Tracecat feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and Tracecat 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 Tracecat
Tracecat is an open source security automation platform for teams and AI agents. It lives in the security operations and incident response ecosystem, combining agents, workflows, lookup tables, and case management in one Python application. The project is licensed under AGPL 3.0, with a separate paid Enterprise Edition directory and feature gates.
read the full Tracecat overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is crowdsec or Tracecat more popular?
crowdsec has 15,106 GitHub stars and Tracecat has 3,826. crowdsec has the larger community by that measure.
Are crowdsec and Tracecat free?
Both are open source. crowdsec is licensed under MIT and Tracecat under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between crowdsec and Tracecat?
crowdsec is written in Go and Tracecat in Python. 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 Tracecat?
Choose crowdsec if you want the larger community (15,106 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Tracecat if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.