head to head · open source
PayloadsAllTheThings vs UnKey
PayloadsAllTheThings has 80,984 GitHub stars, 17,384 forks, 36 open issues and last shipped 24 days ago. UnKey has 5,439 stars, 636 forks, 163 open issues and last shipped yesterday. PayloadsAllTheThings leads on adoption by 1,389% (80,984 vs 5,439 stars). PayloadsAllTheThings is written in Python under MIT; UnKey is written in Go under a custom or non-standard licence. PayloadsAllTheThings has attracted 21% as many forks as stars, UnKey 12%. UnKey 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
| PayloadsAllTheThings | UnKey | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 81K | ★ 5.4K |
| License | MIT | Custom / other |
| Written in | Python | Go |
| Last push | 2026-08-27 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 17K | ⑂ 636 |
| 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 UnKey if
- You want the UnKey feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and UnKey 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 UnKey
Unkey is a developer platform for modern APIs, written in Go and published as a source available repository on GitHub. It brings several pieces of API infrastructure into one place: instant API deployment, globally distributed gateways that route and authenticate traffic, API key issuance and verification, ratelimiting, permissions and role based access control, usage analytics, and audit logs. The project describes itself as unifying infrastructure so that teams can ship faster, and it lives in the security and privacy space, specifically secrets management and API key management, alongside the broader API gatew…
read the full UnKey overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is PayloadsAllTheThings or UnKey more popular?
PayloadsAllTheThings has 80,984 GitHub stars and UnKey has 5,439. PayloadsAllTheThings has the larger community by that measure.
Are PayloadsAllTheThings and UnKey free?
Both are open source. PayloadsAllTheThings is licensed under MIT, and UnKey has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between PayloadsAllTheThings and UnKey?
PayloadsAllTheThings is written in Python and UnKey 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 UnKey?
Choose PayloadsAllTheThings if you want the larger community (80,984 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose UnKey if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.