head to head · open source
shannon vs Dark-Moon
shannon has 51,288 GitHub stars, 5,973 forks, 18 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. Dark-Moon has 1,206 stars, 204 forks, 3 open issues and last shipped 11 days ago. shannon leads on adoption by 4,153% (51,288 vs 1,206 stars). shannon is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; Dark-Moon is written in Python under GPL-3.0. shannon has attracted 12% as many forks as stars, Dark-Moon 17%. shannon was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (ai-penetration-testing, 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 | Dark-Moon | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 51K | ★ 1.2K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-10-27 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.0K | ⑂ 204 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick shannon if
- You weight community size — 51K 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 Dark-Moon if
- You want the Dark-Moon feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and Dark-Moon 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 Dark-Moon
DarkMoon Open source autonomous AI penetration testing platform that finds and proves every vulnerability with a real exploit, on a local model ⭐ Star DarkMoon · 🚀 Quick Start · 📊 Benchmark · 🔒 Darkmoon Pro · ▶️ Watch the demo (Pro) DarkMoon is autonomous AI penetration testing for your own infrastructure. Point it at an authorized target and it runs the whole assessment on its own, then returns proof for every finding. 🟢 Truly open source. GPLv3 and self hosted, every agent's methodology is plain Markdown you can read, diff and fork. 🎯 Finds AND proves. Each vulnerability ships with the exact command, the…
read the full Dark-Moon overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is shannon or Dark-Moon more popular?
shannon has 51,288 GitHub stars and Dark-Moon has 1,206. shannon has the larger community by that measure.
Are shannon and Dark-Moon free?
Both are open source. shannon is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Dark-Moon under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between shannon and Dark-Moon?
shannon is written in TypeScript and Dark-Moon in Python. 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 Dark-Moon?
Choose shannon if you want the larger community (51,288 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Dark-Moon if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.