head to head · open source
PentestGPT vs rengine
PentestGPT has 16,286 GitHub stars, 2,850 forks, 81 open issues and last shipped 4 months ago. rengine has 8,917 stars, 1,345 forks, 164 open issues and last shipped 7 days ago. PentestGPT leads on adoption by 83% (16,286 vs 8,917 stars). PentestGPT is written in Python under MIT; rengine is written in HTML under GPL-3.0. PentestGPT has attracted 17% as many forks as stars, rengine 15%. rengine was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (penetration-testing), 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
| PentestGPT | rengine | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 16K | ★ 8.9K |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Python | HTML |
| Last push | 2026-07-14 | 2026-10-31 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.9K | ⑂ 1.3K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick PentestGPT if
- You weight community size — 16K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick rengine if
- You want the rengine feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches HTML
- You evaluated both and rengine fits your workflow better
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 →
About rengine
reNgine: The Ultimate Web Reconnaissance & Vulnerability Scanner 🚀 reNgine 2.2.0 is released! reNgine 2.2.0 comes with bounty hub where you can sync and import your hackerone programs, in app notifications, chaos as subdomain enumeration tool, ability to upload multiple nuclei and gf patterns, support for regex in out of scope subdomain config, additional pdf report template and many more. Check out What's new in reNgine 2.2.0! What is reNgine? reNgine is your ultimate web application reconnaissance suite, designed to supercharge the recon process for security pros, pentesters, and bug bounty hunters. It is go…
read the full rengine overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is PentestGPT or rengine more popular?
PentestGPT has 16,286 GitHub stars and rengine has 8,917. PentestGPT has the larger community by that measure.
Are PentestGPT and rengine free?
Both are open source. PentestGPT is licensed under MIT and rengine under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between PentestGPT and rengine?
PentestGPT is written in Python and rengine in HTML. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, PentestGPT or rengine?
Choose PentestGPT if you want the larger community (16,286 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose rengine if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.