head to head · open source
ProjectDiscovery vs emba
ProjectDiscovery has 31,319 GitHub stars, 3,877 forks, 107 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. emba has 3,672 stars, 325 forks, 13 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. ProjectDiscovery leads on adoption by 753% (31,319 vs 3,672 stars). ProjectDiscovery is written in Go under MIT; emba is written in Shell under GPL-3.0. ProjectDiscovery has attracted 12% as many forks as stars, emba 9%. emba 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
| ProjectDiscovery | emba | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 31K | ★ 3.7K |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | Shell |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.9K | ⑂ 325 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick ProjectDiscovery if
- You weight community size — 31K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick emba if
- You want the emba feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Shell
- You evaluated both and emba fits your workflow better
About ProjectDiscovery
Nuclei is a high performance, open source vulnerability scanner built by ProjectDiscovery, part of the ProjectDiscovery ecosystem. It operates as a CLI tool using a simple YAML based DSL to define custom vulnerability checks, enabling precise, real world exploitation simulation to eliminate false positives.
read the full ProjectDiscovery overview →
About emba
EMBA is the open source security analyzer for firmware of embedded devices, a Shell based command line tool that carries penetration testers, product security teams, developers and product managers from firmware extraction through static analysis, emulation based dynamic analysis and SBOM creation to a web based vulnerability report.
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Frequently asked questions
Is ProjectDiscovery or emba more popular?
ProjectDiscovery has 31,319 GitHub stars and emba has 3,672. ProjectDiscovery has the larger community by that measure.
Are ProjectDiscovery and emba free?
Both are open source. ProjectDiscovery is licensed under MIT and emba under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between ProjectDiscovery and emba?
ProjectDiscovery is written in Go and emba in Shell. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, ProjectDiscovery or emba?
Choose ProjectDiscovery if you want the larger community (31,319 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose emba if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.