head to head · open source
thc-hydra vs emba
thc-hydra has 12,460 GitHub stars, 2,694 forks, 50 open issues and last shipped 6 days ago. emba has 3,749 stars, 344 forks, 13 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. thc-hydra leads on adoption by 232% (12,460 vs 3,749 stars). thc-hydra is written in C under AGPL-3.0; emba is written in Shell under GPL-3.0. thc-hydra has attracted 22% as many forks as stars, emba 9%. emba 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 | emba | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 12K | ★ 3.7K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | C | Shell |
| Last push | 2026-10-30 | 2026-11-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.7K | ⑂ 344 |
| 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 emba if
- You want the emba feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Shell
- You evaluated both and emba 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 emba
EMBA The security analyzer for firmware of embedded devices EMBA is designed as the central firmware analysis and SBOM tool for penetration testers, product security teams, developers and responsible product managers. It supports the complete security analysis process starting with firmware extraction , doing static analysis and dynamic analysis via emulation, building the SBOM and finally generating a web based vulnerability report. EMBA automatically discovers possible weak spots and vulnerabilities in firmware. Examples are insecure binaries, old and outdated software components, potentially vulnerable…
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Frequently asked questions
Is thc-hydra or emba more popular?
thc-hydra has 12,460 GitHub stars and emba has 3,749. thc-hydra has the larger community by that measure.
Are thc-hydra and emba free?
Both are open source. thc-hydra is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and emba under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between thc-hydra and emba?
thc-hydra is written in C and emba in Shell. 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 emba?
Choose thc-hydra if you want the larger community (12,460 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose emba if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.