head to head · open source
aircrack-ng vs ossec-hids
aircrack-ng has 7,860 GitHub stars, 1,404 forks, 462 open issues and last shipped 27 days ago. ossec-hids has 5,070 stars, 1,074 forks, 125 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. aircrack-ng leads on adoption by 55% (7,860 vs 5,070 stars). aircrack-ng is written in C under GPL-2.0; ossec-hids is written in C under GPL-2.0. aircrack-ng has attracted 18% as many forks as stars, ossec-hids 21%. ossec-hids was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (security), 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| aircrack-ng | ossec-hids | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 7.9K | ★ 5.1K |
| License | GPL-2.0 | GPL-2.0 |
| Written in | C | C |
| Last push | 2026-10-09 | 2026-11-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.4K | ⑂ 1.1K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick aircrack-ng if
- You weight community size — 7.9K 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 ossec-hids if
- You want the ossec-hids feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C
- You evaluated both and ossec-hids fits your workflow better
About aircrack-ng
Aircrack ng Badges GitHub CI Others Repository versions Description Aircrack ng is a complete suite of tools to assess WiFi network security. It focuses on different areas of WiFi security: Monitoring: Packet capture and export of data to text files for further processing by third party tools. Attacking: Replay attacks, deauthentication, fake access points and others via packet injection. Testing: Checking WiFi cards and driver capabilities (capture and injection). Cracking: WEP and WPA PSK (WPA 1 and 2). All tools are command line which allows for heavy scripting. A lot of GUIs have taken advantage of this…
read the full aircrack-ng overview →
About ossec-hids
OSSEC v4.3.0 Information about OSSEC OSSEC is a full platform to monitor and control your systems. It mixes together all the aspects of HIDS (host based intrusion detection), log monitoring and SIM/SIEM together in a simple, powerful and open source solution. Visit our website for the latest information. www.ossec.net Current Releases The current stable releases are available on the ossec website. Releases can be downloaded from: Downloads Release documentation is available at: docs Development The development version is hosted on GitHub and just a simple git clone away. Screenshots File Integrity Monitoring…
read the full ossec-hids overview →
More in Business Software
Related comparisons
More Compliance & Risk Management projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Compliance & Risk Management field.
Frequently asked questions
Is aircrack-ng or ossec-hids more popular?
aircrack-ng has 7,860 GitHub stars and ossec-hids has 5,070. aircrack-ng has the larger community by that measure.
Are aircrack-ng and ossec-hids free?
Both are open source. aircrack-ng is licensed under GPL-2.0 and ossec-hids under GPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between aircrack-ng and ossec-hids?
aircrack-ng is written in C and ossec-hids 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, aircrack-ng or ossec-hids?
Choose aircrack-ng if you want the larger community (7,860 stars) or its GPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose ossec-hids if its feature set, stack or GPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.