head to head · open source
shannon vs arcjet-js
shannon has 48,105 GitHub stars, 5,515 forks, 18 open issues and last shipped 10 days ago. arcjet-js has 683 stars, 31 forks, 11 open issues and last shipped yesterday. shannon leads on adoption by 6,943% (48,105 vs 683 stars). shannon is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; arcjet-js is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. shannon has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, arcjet-js 5%. arcjet-js was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (ai-security), 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
| shannon | arcjet-js | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 48K | ★ 683 |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-08 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.5K | ⑂ 31 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick shannon if
- You weight community size — 48K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick arcjet-js if
- You want the arcjet-js feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and arcjet-js fits your workflow better
About shannon
Shannon is an autonomous AI pentester for web applications and APIs that reads an application's source code, identifies attack paths, and executes real exploits so that only vulnerabilities with a working proof of concept are reported, built for AppSec, DevSecOps, and security engineering teams that ship code continuously.
read the full shannon overview →
About arcjet-js
Arcjet for JavaScript is an Apache 2.0 TypeScript monorepo of runtime security packages that developers call directly inside JavaScript and TypeScript applications, so AI features and agents can detect prompt injection, authorize tool calls, redact sensitive data, and block bots and abuse before an action runs.
read the full arcjet-js overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is shannon or arcjet-js more popular?
shannon has 48,105 GitHub stars and arcjet-js has 683. shannon has the larger community by that measure.
Are shannon and arcjet-js free?
Both are open source. shannon is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and arcjet-js under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between shannon and arcjet-js?
shannon is written in TypeScript and arcjet-js in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, shannon or arcjet-js?
Choose shannon if you want the larger community (48,105 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose arcjet-js if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.