head to head · open source
PayloadsAllTheThings vs pacu
PayloadsAllTheThings has 81,353 GitHub stars, 17,430 forks, 36 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. pacu has 5,345 stars, 800 forks, 38 open issues and last shipped 5 months ago. PayloadsAllTheThings leads on adoption by 1,422% (81,353 vs 5,345 stars). PayloadsAllTheThings is written in Python under MIT; pacu is written in Python under BSD-3-Clause. PayloadsAllTheThings has attracted 21% as many forks as stars, pacu 15%. PayloadsAllTheThings was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (penetration-testing), 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.
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Side by side
| PayloadsAllTheThings | pacu | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 81K | ★ 5.3K |
| License | MIT | BSD-3-Clause |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-08-27 | 2026-05-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 17K | ⑂ 800 |
| 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 pacu if
- You want the pacu feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-3-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and pacu 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 pacu
Pacu is an open source AWS exploitation framework from Rhino Security Labs, built for penetration testers and offensive security teams who need to test the security of Amazon Web Services environments.
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Frequently asked questions
Is PayloadsAllTheThings or pacu more popular?
PayloadsAllTheThings has 81,353 GitHub stars and pacu has 5,345. PayloadsAllTheThings has the larger community by that measure.
Are PayloadsAllTheThings and pacu free?
Both are open source. PayloadsAllTheThings is licensed under MIT and pacu under BSD-3-Clause. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between PayloadsAllTheThings and pacu?
PayloadsAllTheThings is written in Python and pacu 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, PayloadsAllTheThings or pacu?
Choose PayloadsAllTheThings if you want the larger community (81,353 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose pacu if its feature set, stack or BSD-3-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.