head to head · open source
pentagi vs emba
pentagi has 24,766 GitHub stars, 3,186 forks, 71 open issues and last shipped 10 days ago. emba has 3,672 stars, 325 forks, 13 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. pentagi leads on adoption by 574% (24,766 vs 3,672 stars). pentagi is written in Go under MIT; emba is written in Shell under GPL-3.0. pentagi has attracted 13% as many forks as stars, emba 9%. emba 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
| pentagi | emba | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 25K | ★ 3.7K |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | Shell |
| Last push | 2026-09-10 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.2K | ⑂ 325 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick pentagi if
- You weight community size — 25K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick emba if
- You want the emba feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Shell
- You evaluated both and emba fits your workflow better
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 →
About emba
EMBA is the open source security analyzer for firmware of embedded devices, a Shell based command line tool that carries penetration testers, product security teams, developers and product managers from firmware extraction through static analysis, emulation based dynamic analysis and SBOM creation to a web based vulnerability report.
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Frequently asked questions
Is pentagi or emba more popular?
pentagi has 24,766 GitHub stars and emba has 3,672. pentagi has the larger community by that measure.
Are pentagi and emba free?
Both are open source. pentagi is licensed under MIT and emba under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between pentagi and emba?
pentagi is written in Go and emba in Shell. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, pentagi or emba?
Choose pentagi if you want the larger community (24,766 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose emba if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.