head to head · open source
ProjectDiscovery vs reconftw
ProjectDiscovery has 32,650 GitHub stars, 3,977 forks, 107 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. reconftw has 8,338 stars, 1,263 forks, 5 open issues and last shipped 6 days ago. ProjectDiscovery leads on adoption by 292% (32,650 vs 8,338 stars). ProjectDiscovery is written in Go under MIT; reconftw is written in Shell under MIT. ProjectDiscovery has attracted 12% as many forks as stars, reconftw 15%. 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 | reconftw | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 33K | ★ 8.3K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Go | Shell |
| Last push | 2026-11-06 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.0K | ⑂ 1.3K |
| 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 reconftw if
- You want the reconftw feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Shell
- You evaluated both and reconftw 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 reconftw
reconFTW reconFTW is a powerful automated reconnaissance tool designed for security researchers and penetration testers. It streamlines the process of gathering intelligence on a target by performing subdomain enumeration, vulnerability scanning, OSINT and more. With a modular design, extensive configuration options, and support for distributed scanning via AX Framework, reconFTW is built to deliver comprehensive results efficiently. reconFTW leverages a wide range of techniques, including passive and active subdomain discovery, web vulnerability checks (e.g., XSS, SSRF, SQLi), OSINT, directory fuzzing, port…
read the full reconftw overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is ProjectDiscovery or reconftw more popular?
ProjectDiscovery has 32,650 GitHub stars and reconftw has 8,338. ProjectDiscovery has the larger community by that measure.
Are ProjectDiscovery and reconftw free?
Both are open source. ProjectDiscovery is licensed under MIT and reconftw under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between ProjectDiscovery and reconftw?
ProjectDiscovery is written in Go and reconftw 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 reconftw?
Choose ProjectDiscovery if you want the larger community (32,650 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose reconftw if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.