head to head · open source
PentestGPT vs tenzir
PentestGPT has 15,534 GitHub stars, 2,706 forks, 81 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. tenzir has 759 stars, 109 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. PentestGPT leads on adoption by 1,947% (15,534 vs 759 stars). PentestGPT is written in Python under MIT; tenzir is written in C++ under BSD-3-Clause. PentestGPT has attracted 17% as many forks as stars, tenzir 14%. tenzir was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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 | tenzir | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 16K | ★ 759 |
| License | MIT | BSD-3-Clause |
| Written in | Python | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-07-14 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.7K | ⑂ 109 |
| 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 tenzir if
- You want the tenzir feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-3-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You evaluated both and tenzir 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 tenzir
Tenzir is a data pipeline engine for security teams — written in C++ and released under the BSD 3 Clause licence — that lets SOC analysts, detection engineers, and incident responders collect, transform, enrich, and route security telemetry instead of only storing it.
read the full tenzir overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is PentestGPT or tenzir more popular?
PentestGPT has 15,534 GitHub stars and tenzir has 759. PentestGPT has the larger community by that measure.
Are PentestGPT and tenzir free?
Both are open source. PentestGPT is licensed under MIT and tenzir under BSD-3-Clause. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between PentestGPT and tenzir?
PentestGPT is written in Python and tenzir 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, PentestGPT or tenzir?
Choose PentestGPT if you want the larger community (15,534 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose tenzir if its feature set, stack or BSD-3-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.