head to head · open source
PayloadsAllTheThings vs reconftw
PayloadsAllTheThings has 81,129 GitHub stars, 17,405 forks, 36 open issues and last shipped 27 days ago. reconftw has 8,138 stars, 1,235 forks, 1 open issues and last shipped yesterday. PayloadsAllTheThings leads on adoption by 897% (81,129 vs 8,138 stars). PayloadsAllTheThings is written in Python under MIT; reconftw is written in Shell under MIT. PayloadsAllTheThings has attracted 21% as many forks as stars, reconftw 15%. reconftw was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 4 topic tags (bugbounty, hacking, penetration-testing, pentest), 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 | reconftw | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 81K | ★ 8.1K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Shell |
| Last push | 2026-08-27 | 2026-09-22 |
| Forks | ⑂ 17K | ⑂ 1.2K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick PayloadsAllTheThings if
- You weight community size — 81K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- 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 PayloadsAllTheThings
Payloads All The Things is an MIT licensed, community maintained collection of web application security payloads, bypass techniques and pentest methodology notes, written for penetration testers, bug bounty hunters, CTF players and red teamers who need a reference they can copy from during an engagement.
read the full PayloadsAllTheThings overview →
About reconftw
reconFTW is an automated reconnaissance framework, written in Shell under the MIT licence, that runs a curated chain of security tools against a target domain to enumerate subdomains and hosts, gather OSINT, analyse web surfaces, and check for vulnerabilities; it is built for security researchers, penetration testers, and bug bounty hunters.
read the full reconftw overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is PayloadsAllTheThings or reconftw more popular?
PayloadsAllTheThings has 81,129 GitHub stars and reconftw has 8,138. PayloadsAllTheThings has the larger community by that measure.
Are PayloadsAllTheThings and reconftw free?
Both are open source. PayloadsAllTheThings is licensed under MIT and reconftw under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between PayloadsAllTheThings and reconftw?
PayloadsAllTheThings is written in Python 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, PayloadsAllTheThings or reconftw?
Choose PayloadsAllTheThings if you want the larger community (81,129 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose reconftw if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.