head to head · open source

PayloadsAllTheThings vs vuls

PayloadsAllTheThings has 82,315 GitHub stars, 17,560 forks, 36 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. vuls has 12,325 stars, 1,247 forks, 92 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. PayloadsAllTheThings leads on adoption by 568% (82,315 vs 12,325 stars). PayloadsAllTheThings is written in Python under MIT; vuls is written in Go under GPL-3.0. PayloadsAllTheThings has attracted 21% as many forks as stars, vuls 10%. vuls 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.

PayloadsAllTheThings ★ 82K vuls ★ 12K category Security & Privacy

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Side by side

PayloadsAllTheThings vuls
GitHub stars ★ 82K ★ 12K
License MIT GPL-3.0
Written in Python Go
Last push 2026-10-30 2026-11-01
Forks ⑂ 18K ⑂ 1.2K
Self-hosting Yes Yes
Data ownership Your server Your server

pick PayloadsAllTheThings if

  • You weight community size — 82K stars and counting
  • You want the MIT license terms
  • Your stack matches Python
  • You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance

full PayloadsAllTheThings profile →

pick vuls if

  • You want the vuls feature set and don't need the biggest community
  • You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
  • Your stack matches Go
  • You evaluated both and vuls fits your workflow better

full vuls profile →

About PayloadsAllTheThings

Payloads All The Things A list of useful payloads and bypasses for Web Application Security. Feel free to improve with your payloads and techniques! You can also contribute with a :beers: IRL, or using the sponsor button. An alternative display version is available at PayloadsAllTheThingsWeb. :book: Documentation Every section contains the following files, you can use the template vuln folder to create a new chapter: README.md vulnerability description and how to exploit it, including several payloads Intruder a set of files to give to Burp Intruder Images pictures for the README.md Files some files referenced…

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About vuls

Vuls: VULnerability Scanner Vulnerability scanner for Linux/FreeBSD, agent less, written in Go. Twitter: @vuls en Abstract For a system administrator, having to perform security vulnerability analysis and software update on a daily basis can be a burden. To avoid downtime in a production environment, it is common for a system administrator to choose not to use the automatic update option provided by the package manager and to perform update manually. This leads to the following problems. The system administrator will have to constantly watch out for any new vulnerabilities in NVD (National Vulnerability…

read the full vuls overview →

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Frequently asked questions

Is PayloadsAllTheThings or vuls more popular?

PayloadsAllTheThings has 82,315 GitHub stars and vuls has 12,325. PayloadsAllTheThings has the larger community by that measure.

Are PayloadsAllTheThings and vuls free?

Both are open source. PayloadsAllTheThings is licensed under MIT and vuls under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.

What is the difference between PayloadsAllTheThings and vuls?

PayloadsAllTheThings is written in Python and vuls 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 vuls?

Choose PayloadsAllTheThings if you want the larger community (82,315 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose vuls if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.