head to head · open source
PayloadsAllTheThings vs tenzir
PayloadsAllTheThings has 81,538 GitHub stars, 17,449 forks, 36 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. tenzir has 762 stars, 110 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped today. PayloadsAllTheThings leads on adoption by 10,601% (81,538 vs 762 stars). PayloadsAllTheThings is written in Python under MIT; tenzir is written in C++ under BSD-3-Clause. PayloadsAllTheThings has attracted 21% as many forks as stars, tenzir 14%. tenzir was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (hacktoberfest), 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| PayloadsAllTheThings | tenzir | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 82K | ★ 762 |
| License | MIT | BSD-3-Clause |
| Written in | Python | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-08-27 | 2026-10-08 |
| Forks | ⑂ 17K | ⑂ 110 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick PayloadsAllTheThings if
- You weight community size — 82K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick tenzir if
- You want the tenzir feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-3-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You evaluated both and tenzir fits your workflow better
About PayloadsAllTheThings
Payloads All The Things is an MIT licensed, community maintained collection of web application security payloads, bypass techniques and pentest methodology notes, written for penetration testers, bug bounty hunters, CTF players and red teamers who need a reference they can copy from during an engagement.
read the full PayloadsAllTheThings overview →
About tenzir
Tenzir is a data pipeline engine for security teams — written in C++ and released under the BSD 3 Clause licence — that lets SOC analysts, detection engineers, and incident responders collect, transform, enrich, and route security telemetry instead of only storing it.
read the full tenzir overview →
More in Security & Privacy
Related comparisons
More Threat Detection & Response projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Threat Detection & Response field.
Frequently asked questions
Is PayloadsAllTheThings or tenzir more popular?
PayloadsAllTheThings has 81,538 GitHub stars and tenzir has 762. PayloadsAllTheThings has the larger community by that measure.
Are PayloadsAllTheThings and tenzir free?
Both are open source. PayloadsAllTheThings is licensed under MIT and tenzir under BSD-3-Clause. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between PayloadsAllTheThings and tenzir?
PayloadsAllTheThings is written in Python and tenzir in C++. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, PayloadsAllTheThings or tenzir?
Choose PayloadsAllTheThings if you want the larger community (81,538 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose tenzir if its feature set, stack or BSD-3-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.