head to head · open source
rea vs it-tools
rea has 422,352 GitHub stars, 105,329 forks, 70 open issues and last shipped yesterday. it-tools has 41,100 stars, 5,556 forks, 821 open issues and last shipped 7 days ago. rea leads on adoption by 928% (422,352 vs 41,100 stars). rea is written in TypeScript under MIT; it-tools is written in Vue under GPL-3.0. rea has attracted 25% as many forks as stars, it-tools 14%. rea was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (javascript), 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
| rea | it-tools | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 422K | ★ 41K |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Vue |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-27 |
| Forks | ⑂ 105K | ⑂ 5.6K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick rea if
- You weight community size — 422K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick it-tools if
- You want the it-tools feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Vue
- You evaluated both and it-tools fits your workflow better
About rea
English · 简体中文 · 繁體中文 · 日本語 · 한국어 · Türkçe · Русский · Tiếng Việt · ไทย · Deutsch · Español · Français · Українська · Polski · Português (Brasil) · العربية · فارسی REA: Reverse Engineer Anything One MCP for reverse engineering across binaries, applications, and runtime behavior. See a feature you like. Understand how it works, down to the binary level. Website · Guides · Showcases Quick start · How REA works · What you can analyze · Showcases · FAQ · Documentation npx rea agents setup Join the Reverse Engineering Community Discord · Q&A · Show and Tell See a feature in an app that you want in your own product?…
About it-tools
Useful tools for developer and people working in IT. Try it! Functionalities and roadmap Please check the issues to see if some feature listed to be implemented. You have an idea of a tool? Submit a feature request! Self host Self host solutions for your homelab From docker hub: From github packages: Other solutions: Cloudron Tipi Unraid Contribute Recommended IDE Setup VSCode with the following extensions: Volar (and disable Vetur) TypeScript Vue Plugin (Volar). ESLint i18n Ally with the following settings: Type Support for .vue Imports in TS TypeScript cannot handle type information for .vue imports by…
read the full it-tools overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is rea or it-tools more popular?
rea has 422,352 GitHub stars and it-tools has 41,100. rea has the larger community by that measure.
Are rea and it-tools free?
Both are open source. rea is licensed under MIT and it-tools under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between rea and it-tools?
rea is written in TypeScript and it-tools in Vue. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, rea or it-tools?
Choose rea if you want the larger community (422,352 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose it-tools if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.