head to head · open source
thc-hydra vs afrog
thc-hydra has 12,289 GitHub stars, 2,668 forks, 50 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. afrog has 4,420 stars, 484 forks, 111 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. thc-hydra leads on adoption by 178% (12,289 vs 4,420 stars). thc-hydra is written in C under AGPL-3.0; afrog is written in HTML under MIT. thc-hydra has attracted 22% as many forks as stars, afrog 11%. afrog was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (penetration-testing), 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
| thc-hydra | afrog | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 12K | ★ 4.4K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | C | HTML |
| Last push | 2026-07-30 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.7K | ⑂ 484 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick thc-hydra if
- You weight community size — 12K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick afrog if
- You want the afrog feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches HTML
- You evaluated both and afrog fits your workflow better
About thc-hydra
Hydra is an AGPL 3.0 licensed, C based login cracker that attacks dozens of network protocols in parallel, built for security researchers and penetration testing consultants who need to demonstrate how easily a remote system can be reached with weak credentials.
read the full thc-hydra overview →
About afrog
afrog is an MIT licensed vulnerability scanner built for bug bounty, penetration testing and red teaming, aimed at testers who need fast verification of web targets and network services with low false positives.
read the full afrog overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is thc-hydra or afrog more popular?
thc-hydra has 12,289 GitHub stars and afrog has 4,420. thc-hydra has the larger community by that measure.
Are thc-hydra and afrog free?
Both are open source. thc-hydra is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and afrog under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between thc-hydra and afrog?
thc-hydra is written in C and afrog in HTML. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, thc-hydra or afrog?
Choose thc-hydra if you want the larger community (12,289 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose afrog if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.