head to head · open source
PayloadsAllTheThings vs rengine
PayloadsAllTheThings has 81,055 GitHub stars, 17,390 forks, 36 open issues and last shipped 26 days ago. rengine has 8,852 stars, 1,344 forks, 164 open issues and last shipped yesterday. PayloadsAllTheThings leads on adoption by 816% (81,055 vs 8,852 stars). PayloadsAllTheThings is written in Python under MIT; rengine is written in HTML under GPL-3.0. PayloadsAllTheThings has attracted 21% as many forks as stars, rengine 15%. rengine was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (bugbounty, hacking, 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 | rengine | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 81K | ★ 8.9K |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Python | HTML |
| Last push | 2026-08-27 | 2026-09-21 |
| Forks | ⑂ 17K | ⑂ 1.3K |
| 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 rengine if
- You want the rengine feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches HTML
- You evaluated both and rengine 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 rengine
reNgine is an open source automated reconnaissance framework for web applications, built for penetration testers, bug bounty hunters and corporate security teams who need a configurable, repeatable recon process with the results correlated and stored in one place.
read the full rengine overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is PayloadsAllTheThings or rengine more popular?
PayloadsAllTheThings has 81,055 GitHub stars and rengine has 8,852. PayloadsAllTheThings has the larger community by that measure.
Are PayloadsAllTheThings and rengine free?
Both are open source. PayloadsAllTheThings is licensed under MIT and rengine under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between PayloadsAllTheThings and rengine?
PayloadsAllTheThings is written in Python and rengine in HTML. 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 rengine?
Choose PayloadsAllTheThings if you want the larger community (81,055 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose rengine if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.