head to head · open source
thc-hydra vs npq
thc-hydra has 12,504 GitHub stars, 2,711 forks, 50 open issues and last shipped 6 days ago. npq has 1,796 stars, 43 forks, 7 open issues and last shipped 7 days ago. thc-hydra leads on adoption by 596% (12,504 vs 1,796 stars). thc-hydra is written in C under AGPL-3.0; npq is written in JavaScript under Apache-2.0. thc-hydra has attracted 22% as many forks as stars, npq 2%. thc-hydra 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
| thc-hydra | npq | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 13K | ★ 1.8K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | C | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-08 | 2026-11-07 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.7K | ⑂ 43 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick thc-hydra if
- You weight community size — 13K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick npq if
- You want the npq feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and npq fits your workflow better
About thc-hydra
H Y D R A (c) 2001 2023 by van Hauser / THC Many modules were written by David (dot) Maciejak @ gmail (dot) com BFG code by Jan Dlabal Licensed under AGPLv3 (see LICENSE file) Please do not use in military or secret service organizations, or for illegal purposes. (This is the wish of the author and non binding. Many people working in these organizations do not care for laws and ethics anyway. You are not one of the "good" ones if you ignore this.) NOTE: No, this is not meant to be a markdown doc! old school! Hydra in the most current GitHub state can be directly downloaded via Docker: INTRODUCTION Number one of…
read the full thc-hydra overview →
About npq
npq allows you to audit npm packages before you install them TL;DR how to use npq: What it does: the npx tool downloads and execute npq package, runs an install check for the express package and dry run means npq exists regardless of success/errors . Here's a screenshot of npq in action: Media coverage about npq: As mentioned on Thomas Gentilhomme's French book of Become a Node.js Developer Tao Bojlén's A web of trust for npm Zander's favorite list of command line tools Ran Bar Zik's npq review to install safe modules ostechnix's How To Safely Install Packages Using Npm Or Yarn On Linux debricked's How to…
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Frequently asked questions
Is thc-hydra or npq more popular?
thc-hydra has 12,504 GitHub stars and npq has 1,796. thc-hydra has the larger community by that measure.
Are thc-hydra and npq free?
Both are open source. thc-hydra is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and npq under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between thc-hydra and npq?
thc-hydra is written in C and npq in JavaScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, thc-hydra or npq?
Choose thc-hydra if you want the larger community (12,504 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose npq if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.