head to head · open source
PentestGPT vs pacu
PentestGPT has 16,422 GitHub stars, 2,877 forks, 81 open issues and last shipped 4 months ago. pacu has 5,398 stars, 801 forks, 38 open issues and last shipped 6 months ago. PentestGPT leads on adoption by 204% (16,422 vs 5,398 stars). PentestGPT is written in Python under MIT; pacu is written in Python under BSD-3-Clause. PentestGPT has attracted 18% as many forks as stars, pacu 15%. 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 | pacu | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 16K | ★ 5.4K |
| License | MIT | BSD-3-Clause |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-07-14 | 2026-05-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.9K | ⑂ 801 |
| 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 pacu if
- You want the pacu feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-3-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and pacu fits your workflow better
About PentestGPT
[![Contributors][contributors shield]][contributors url] [![Forks][forks shield]][forks url] [![Stargazers][stars shield]][stars url] [![Issues][issues shield]][issues url] [![MIT License][license shield]][license url] [![Discord][discord shield]][discord url] PentestGPT AI Powered Autonomous Penetration Testing Agent Published at USENIX Security 2024 Official Website: pentestgpt.com » Research Paper · Report Bug · Request Feature Demo Installation Watch on YouTube PentestGPT in Action Watch on YouTube What's New in v1.0 (Agentic Upgrade) Multi Stage Pipeline The agent works through staged phases (recon →…
read the full PentestGPT overview →
About pacu
Quick reference Where to get help : the Rhino Security Labs Discord, or Stack Overflow Where to file issues : Maintained by : Rhino Security Labs What is Pacu? Pacu is an open source AWS exploitation framework, designed for offensive security testing against cloud environments. Created and maintained by Rhino Security Labs, Pacu allows penetration testers to exploit configuration flaws within an AWS account, using modules to easily expand its functionality. Current modules enable a range of attacks, including user privilege escalation, backdooring of IAM users, attacking vulnerable Lambda functions, and much…
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Frequently asked questions
Is PentestGPT or pacu more popular?
PentestGPT has 16,422 GitHub stars and pacu has 5,398. PentestGPT has the larger community by that measure.
Are PentestGPT and pacu free?
Both are open source. PentestGPT is licensed under MIT and pacu under BSD-3-Clause. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between PentestGPT and pacu?
PentestGPT is written in Python and pacu 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 pacu?
Choose PentestGPT if you want the larger community (16,422 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose pacu if its feature set, stack or BSD-3-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.