head to head · open source
PentestGPT vs evillimiter
PentestGPT has 15,861 GitHub stars, 2,766 forks, 81 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. evillimiter has 2,024 stars, 365 forks, 28 open issues and last shipped 7 months ago. PentestGPT leads on adoption by 684% (15,861 vs 2,024 stars). PentestGPT is written in Python under MIT; evillimiter is written in Python under MIT. PentestGPT has attracted 17% as many forks as stars, evillimiter 18%. PentestGPT was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (penetration-testing, python), 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
| PentestGPT | evillimiter | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 16K | ★ 2.0K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-07-14 | 2026-03-24 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.8K | ⑂ 365 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick PentestGPT if
- You weight community size — 16K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick evillimiter if
- You want the evillimiter feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and evillimiter fits your workflow better
About PentestGPT
PentestGPT is an MIT licensed Python framework that uses large language models to run automated penetration tests and CTF challenges, aimed at penetration testers, security engineers and CTF players who want an agent to drive the tooling rather than working through it by hand.
read the full PentestGPT overview →
About evillimiter
Evil Limiter is a command line tool for Linux that lets a network administrator or pentester monitor, analyze, throttle, and block the bandwidth of individual devices on their local network without physical or administrative access to those devices.
read the full evillimiter overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is PentestGPT or evillimiter more popular?
PentestGPT has 15,861 GitHub stars and evillimiter has 2,024. PentestGPT has the larger community by that measure.
Are PentestGPT and evillimiter free?
Both are open source. PentestGPT is licensed under MIT and evillimiter under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between PentestGPT and evillimiter?
PentestGPT is written in Python and evillimiter in Python. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, PentestGPT or evillimiter?
Choose PentestGPT if you want the larger community (15,861 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose evillimiter if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.