head to head · open source
ProjectDiscovery vs PentestGPT
ProjectDiscovery has 32,543 GitHub stars, 3,962 forks, 107 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. PentestGPT has 16,247 stars, 2,838 forks, 81 open issues and last shipped 4 months ago. ProjectDiscovery leads on adoption by 100% (32,543 vs 16,247 stars). ProjectDiscovery is written in Go under MIT; PentestGPT is written in Python under MIT. ProjectDiscovery has attracted 12% as many forks as stars, PentestGPT 17%. ProjectDiscovery 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 | PentestGPT | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 33K | ★ 16K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Go | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-07-14 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.0K | ⑂ 2.8K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick ProjectDiscovery if
- You weight community size — 33K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick PentestGPT if
- You want the PentestGPT feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and PentestGPT fits your workflow better
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 →
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 →
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Frequently asked questions
Is ProjectDiscovery or PentestGPT more popular?
ProjectDiscovery has 32,543 GitHub stars and PentestGPT has 16,247. ProjectDiscovery has the larger community by that measure.
Are ProjectDiscovery and PentestGPT free?
Both are open source. ProjectDiscovery is licensed under MIT and PentestGPT under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between ProjectDiscovery and PentestGPT?
ProjectDiscovery is written in Go and PentestGPT 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, ProjectDiscovery or PentestGPT?
Choose ProjectDiscovery if you want the larger community (32,543 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose PentestGPT if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.