head to head · open source
PayloadsAllTheThings vs pentagi
PayloadsAllTheThings has 80,960 GitHub stars, 17,377 forks, 36 open issues and last shipped 23 days ago. pentagi has 24,708 stars, 3,177 forks, 71 open issues and last shipped 9 days ago. PayloadsAllTheThings leads on adoption by 228% (80,960 vs 24,708 stars). PayloadsAllTheThings is written in Python under MIT; pentagi is written in Go under MIT. PayloadsAllTheThings has attracted 21% as many forks as stars, pentagi 13%. pentagi 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 | pentagi | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 81K | ★ 25K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Go |
| Last push | 2026-08-27 | 2026-09-10 |
| Forks | ⑂ 17K | ⑂ 3.2K |
| 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 pentagi if
- You want the pentagi feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and pentagi 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 pentagi
PentAGI is an MIT licensed, self hosted multi agent system written in Go that runs fully autonomous AI agents to perform complex penetration testing tasks inside an isolated Docker sandbox, built for information security professionals, researchers, and enthusiasts.
read the full pentagi overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is PayloadsAllTheThings or pentagi more popular?
PayloadsAllTheThings has 80,960 GitHub stars and pentagi has 24,708. PayloadsAllTheThings has the larger community by that measure.
Are PayloadsAllTheThings and pentagi free?
Both are open source. PayloadsAllTheThings is licensed under MIT and pentagi under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between PayloadsAllTheThings and pentagi?
PayloadsAllTheThings is written in Python and pentagi in Go. 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 pentagi?
Choose PayloadsAllTheThings if you want the larger community (80,960 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose pentagi if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.