head to head · open source
ProjectDiscovery vs Zen-Ai-Pentest
ProjectDiscovery has 32,381 GitHub stars, 3,951 forks, 107 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Zen-Ai-Pentest has 500 stars, 88 forks, 47 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. ProjectDiscovery leads on adoption by 6,376% (32,381 vs 500 stars). ProjectDiscovery is written in Go under MIT; Zen-Ai-Pentest is written in Python under MIT. ProjectDiscovery has attracted 12% as many forks as stars, Zen-Ai-Pentest 18%. ProjectDiscovery was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (security, vulnerability-scanner), 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
| ProjectDiscovery | Zen-Ai-Pentest | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 32K | ★ 500 |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Go | Python |
| Last push | 2026-10-27 | 2026-10-26 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.0K | ⑂ 88 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick ProjectDiscovery if
- You weight community size — 32K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Zen-Ai-Pentest if
- You want the Zen-Ai-Pentest feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and Zen-Ai-Pentest 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 Zen-Ai-Pentest
Professional AI Powered Penetration Testing Framework Autonomous security assessment powered by state of the art language models Features • Quick Start • Architecture • Pipelines • Security • Docs 🔥 Overview Zen AI Pentest is an autonomous, AI driven penetration testing framework that combines cutting edge large language models with 72+ professional security tools. Built for security professionals, bug bounty hunters, and enterprise red teams. ✨ Features 🤖 Autonomous AI ReAct Pattern : Reason → Act → Observe → Reflect State Machine : IDLE → PLANNING → EXECUTING → OBSERVING → REFLECTING → COMPLETED Memory…
read the full Zen-Ai-Pentest overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is ProjectDiscovery or Zen-Ai-Pentest more popular?
ProjectDiscovery has 32,381 GitHub stars and Zen-Ai-Pentest has 500. ProjectDiscovery has the larger community by that measure.
Are ProjectDiscovery and Zen-Ai-Pentest free?
Both are open source. ProjectDiscovery is licensed under MIT and Zen-Ai-Pentest under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between ProjectDiscovery and Zen-Ai-Pentest?
ProjectDiscovery is written in Go and Zen-Ai-Pentest 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 Zen-Ai-Pentest?
Choose ProjectDiscovery if you want the larger community (32,381 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Zen-Ai-Pentest if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.