head to head · open source
PentestGPT vs pacu
PentestGPT has 15,652 GitHub stars, 2,722 forks, 81 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. pacu has 5,345 stars, 800 forks, 38 open issues and last shipped 5 months ago. PentestGPT leads on adoption by 193% (15,652 vs 5,345 stars). PentestGPT is written in Python under MIT; pacu is written in Python under BSD-3-Clause. PentestGPT has attracted 17% 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 | ★ 5.3K |
| License | MIT | BSD-3-Clause |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-07-14 | 2026-05-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.7K | ⑂ 800 |
| 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
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 pacu
Pacu is an open source AWS exploitation framework from Rhino Security Labs, built for penetration testers and offensive security teams who need to test the security of Amazon Web Services environments.
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Frequently asked questions
Is PentestGPT or pacu more popular?
PentestGPT has 15,652 GitHub stars and pacu has 5,345. 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 (15,652 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose pacu if its feature set, stack or BSD-3-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.