head to head · open source
shannon vs bla
shannon has 51,901 GitHub stars, 6,068 forks, 18 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. bla has 5,706 stars, 700 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped yesterday. shannon leads on adoption by 810% (51,901 vs 5,706 stars). shannon is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; bla is written in TypeScript under MIT. shannon has attracted 12% as many forks as stars, bla 12%. bla 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 | bla | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 52K | ★ 5.7K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-13 | 2026-11-14 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.1K | ⑂ 700 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick shannon if
- You weight community size — 52K 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 bla if
- You want the bla feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and bla fits your workflow better
About shannon
[!NOTE] Shannon 3.0 is live: deeper security code analysis, more thoroughly vetted findings, a rebuilt CLI, native CI/CD, professional PDF reports, and SARIF. Shannon is an autonomous, AI pentester for web applications and APIs. It analyzes your source code, identifies attack paths, and executes real exploits to prove vulnerabilities before they reach production. No exploit, no report. This repository is Shannon Open Source: the full agent, run locally from your command line. Launch Shannon The interactive launcher will guide you through setup and your first pentest. [!TIP] AI agents and LLMs: start with…
read the full shannon overview →
About bla
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 · Bahasa Indonesia · Italiano · Ελληνικά · മലയാളം · Roman Urdu · Română BLA: Blind LLM Agents Make reverse engineering bankrupt again. Point BLA at the build you ship. When an AI reverse engineering agent (REA) opens it, the analyzer hits resource budgets, follows decoys, and burns tokens — while your users still get the same runtime behavior. Website · Guides · Showcases · Disclaimer Quick start · Empirical results · Format coverage · Benchmark · FAQ…
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Frequently asked questions
Is shannon or bla more popular?
shannon has 51,901 GitHub stars and bla has 5,706. shannon has the larger community by that measure.
Are shannon and bla free?
Both are open source. shannon is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and bla under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between shannon and bla?
shannon is written in TypeScript and bla 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 bla?
Choose shannon if you want the larger community (51,901 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose bla if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.