head to head · open source
thc-hydra vs DSInternals
thc-hydra has 12,474 GitHub stars, 2,701 forks, 50 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. DSInternals has 1,978 stars, 277 forks, 20 open issues and last shipped 28 days ago. thc-hydra leads on adoption by 531% (12,474 vs 1,978 stars). thc-hydra is written in C under AGPL-3.0; DSInternals is written in C# under MIT. thc-hydra has attracted 22% as many forks as stars, DSInternals 14%. thc-hydra 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 | DSInternals | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 12K | ★ 2.0K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | C | C# |
| Last push | 2026-11-07 | 2026-10-12 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.7K | ⑂ 277 |
| 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 DSInternals if
- You want the DSInternals feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches C#
- You evaluated both and DSInternals fits your workflow better
About thc-hydra
H Y D R A (c) 2001 2023 by van Hauser / THC Many modules were written by David (dot) Maciejak @ gmail (dot) com BFG code by Jan Dlabal Licensed under AGPLv3 (see LICENSE file) Please do not use in military or secret service organizations, or for illegal purposes. (This is the wish of the author and non binding. Many people working in these organizations do not care for laws and ethics anyway. You are not one of the "good" ones if you ignore this.) NOTE: No, this is not meant to be a markdown doc! old school! Hydra in the most current GitHub state can be directly downloaded via Docker: INTRODUCTION Number one of…
read the full thc-hydra overview →
About DSInternals
Directory Services Internals PowerShell Module and Framework Introduction The DSInternals project consists of these two parts: The DSInternals Framework exposes several internal features of Active Directory and can be used from any .NET application. The codebase has already been integrated into several 3 rd party commercial products that use it in scenarios like Active Directory disaster recovery, identity management, cross forest migrations and password strength auditing. The DSInternals PowerShell Module provides easy to use cmdlets that are built on top of the Framework. These are the main features: Active…
read the full DSInternals overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is thc-hydra or DSInternals more popular?
thc-hydra has 12,474 GitHub stars and DSInternals has 1,978. thc-hydra has the larger community by that measure.
Are thc-hydra and DSInternals free?
Both are open source. thc-hydra is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and DSInternals under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between thc-hydra and DSInternals?
thc-hydra is written in C and DSInternals 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, thc-hydra or DSInternals?
Choose thc-hydra if you want the larger community (12,474 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose DSInternals if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.