head to head · open source
pentagi vs thc-hydra
pentagi has 24,800 GitHub stars, 3,195 forks, 71 open issues and last shipped 12 days ago. thc-hydra has 12,289 stars, 2,668 forks, 50 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. pentagi leads on adoption by 102% (24,800 vs 12,289 stars). pentagi is written in Go under MIT; thc-hydra is written in C under AGPL-3.0. pentagi has attracted 13% as many forks as stars, thc-hydra 22%. 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
| pentagi | thc-hydra | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 25K | ★ 12K |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | C |
| Last push | 2026-09-10 | 2026-07-30 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.2K | ⑂ 2.7K |
| 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 thc-hydra if
- You want the thc-hydra feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C
- You evaluated both and thc-hydra 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 thc-hydra
Hydra is an AGPL 3.0 licensed, C based login cracker that attacks dozens of network protocols in parallel, built for security researchers and penetration testing consultants who need to demonstrate how easily a remote system can be reached with weak credentials.
read the full thc-hydra overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is pentagi or thc-hydra more popular?
pentagi has 24,800 GitHub stars and thc-hydra has 12,289. pentagi has the larger community by that measure.
Are pentagi and thc-hydra free?
Both are open source. pentagi is licensed under MIT and thc-hydra under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between pentagi and thc-hydra?
pentagi is written in Go and thc-hydra in C. 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 thc-hydra?
Choose pentagi if you want the larger community (24,800 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose thc-hydra if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.