head to head · open source
strix vs pentest-ai
strix has 63,281 GitHub stars, 6,903 forks, 383 open issues and last shipped yesterday. pentest-ai has 1,677 stars, 314 forks, 2 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. strix leads on adoption by 3,673% (63,281 vs 1,677 stars). strix is written in Python under Apache-2.0; pentest-ai is written in Python under MIT. strix has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, pentest-ai 19%. strix was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 6 topic tags (ai-penetration-testing, ai-pentesting, ai-security, bug-bounty), 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
| strix | pentest-ai | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 63K | ★ 1.7K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-13 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.9K | ⑂ 314 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick strix if
- You weight community size — 63K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick pentest-ai if
- You want the pentest-ai feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and pentest-ai fits your workflow better
About strix
Strix is an open source AI penetration testing tool that deploys autonomous AI agents against a running codebase to find, validate, and fix application vulnerabilities, built for developers and security teams who want dynamic security testing without the cost and scheduling overhead of manual pentesting.
read the full strix overview →
About pentest-ai
Pentest AI is an open source Python project that connects an AI client or model to a penetration testing workflow. It belongs to the AI security and application security ecosystem, and it is distributed under the MIT license. The project is published as ptai on PyPI and can be used through MCP, the CLI, or CI.
read the full pentest-ai overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is strix or pentest-ai more popular?
strix has 63,281 GitHub stars and pentest-ai has 1,677. strix has the larger community by that measure.
Are strix and pentest-ai free?
Both are open source. strix is licensed under Apache-2.0 and pentest-ai under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between strix and pentest-ai?
strix is written in Python and pentest-ai 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, strix or pentest-ai?
Choose strix if you want the larger community (63,281 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose pentest-ai if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.