head to head · open source
thc-hydra vs airgorah
thc-hydra has 12,293 GitHub stars, 2,669 forks, 50 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. airgorah has 3,569 stars, 602 forks, 7 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. thc-hydra leads on adoption by 244% (12,293 vs 3,569 stars). thc-hydra is written in C under AGPL-3.0; airgorah is written in Rust under MIT. thc-hydra has attracted 22% as many forks as stars, airgorah 17%. airgorah was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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 | airgorah | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 12K | ★ 3.6K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | C | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-07-30 | 2026-09-20 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.7K | ⑂ 602 |
| 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 airgorah if
- You want the airgorah feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and airgorah 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 airgorah
Airgorah is a WiFi security auditing application written in Rust with a GTK4 graphical interface, built for Linux users such as penetration testers, wireless auditors and security engineers who assess networks they own or are authorised to test.
read the full airgorah overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is thc-hydra or airgorah more popular?
thc-hydra has 12,293 GitHub stars and airgorah has 3,569. thc-hydra has the larger community by that measure.
Are thc-hydra and airgorah free?
Both are open source. thc-hydra is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and airgorah under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between thc-hydra and airgorah?
thc-hydra is written in C and airgorah in Rust. 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 airgorah?
Choose thc-hydra if you want the larger community (12,293 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose airgorah if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.