head to head · open source
PayloadsAllTheThings vs ProjectDiscovery
PayloadsAllTheThings has 82,315 GitHub stars, 17,560 forks, 36 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. ProjectDiscovery has 32,543 stars, 3,962 forks, 107 open issues and last shipped yesterday. PayloadsAllTheThings leads on adoption by 153% (82,315 vs 32,543 stars). PayloadsAllTheThings is written in Python under MIT; ProjectDiscovery is written in Go under MIT. PayloadsAllTheThings has attracted 21% as many forks as stars, ProjectDiscovery 12%. ProjectDiscovery was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (hacktoberfest), 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
| PayloadsAllTheThings | ProjectDiscovery | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 82K | ★ 33K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Go |
| Last push | 2026-10-30 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 18K | ⑂ 4.0K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick PayloadsAllTheThings if
- You weight community size — 82K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick ProjectDiscovery if
- You want the ProjectDiscovery feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and ProjectDiscovery fits your workflow better
About PayloadsAllTheThings
Payloads All The Things A list of useful payloads and bypasses for Web Application Security. Feel free to improve with your payloads and techniques! You can also contribute with a :beers: IRL, or using the sponsor button. An alternative display version is available at PayloadsAllTheThingsWeb. :book: Documentation Every section contains the following files, you can use the template vuln folder to create a new chapter: README.md vulnerability description and how to exploit it, including several payloads Intruder a set of files to give to Burp Intruder Images pictures for the README.md Files some files referenced…
read the full PayloadsAllTheThings overview →
About ProjectDiscovery
English • 中文 • Korean • Indonesia • Spanish • 日本語 • Portuguese • Türkçe Nuclei is a modern, high performance vulnerability scanner that leverages simple YAML based templates. It empowers you to design custom vulnerability detection scenarios that mimic real world conditions, leading to zero false positives. Simple YAML format for creating and customizing vulnerability templates. Contributed by thousands of security professionals to tackle trending vulnerabilities. Reduce false positives by simulating real world steps to verify a vulnerability. Ultra fast parallel scan processing and request clustering. Integrate…
read the full ProjectDiscovery overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is PayloadsAllTheThings or ProjectDiscovery more popular?
PayloadsAllTheThings has 82,315 GitHub stars and ProjectDiscovery has 32,543. PayloadsAllTheThings has the larger community by that measure.
Are PayloadsAllTheThings and ProjectDiscovery free?
Both are open source. PayloadsAllTheThings is licensed under MIT and ProjectDiscovery under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between PayloadsAllTheThings and ProjectDiscovery?
PayloadsAllTheThings is written in Python and ProjectDiscovery in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, PayloadsAllTheThings or ProjectDiscovery?
Choose PayloadsAllTheThings if you want the larger community (82,315 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose ProjectDiscovery if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.