head to head · open source
PentestGPT vs rengine
PentestGPT has 15,555 GitHub stars, 2,712 forks, 81 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. rengine has 8,852 stars, 1,344 forks, 164 open issues and last shipped yesterday. PentestGPT leads on adoption by 76% (15,555 vs 8,852 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 | 2026-09-21 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.7K | ⑂ 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
PentestGPT is an MIT licensed Python framework that uses large language models to run automated penetration tests and CTF challenges, aimed at penetration testers, security engineers and CTF players who want an agent to drive the tooling rather than working through it by hand.
read the full PentestGPT overview →
About rengine
reNgine is an open source automated reconnaissance framework for web applications, built for penetration testers, bug bounty hunters and corporate security teams who need a configurable, repeatable recon process with the results correlated and stored in one place.
read the full rengine overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is PentestGPT or rengine more popular?
PentestGPT has 15,555 GitHub stars and rengine has 8,852. 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 (15,555 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose rengine if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.