head to head · open source
pentagi vs Tracecat
pentagi has 24,766 GitHub stars, 3,186 forks, 71 open issues and last shipped 10 days ago. Tracecat has 3,806 stars, 418 forks, 137 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. pentagi leads on adoption by 551% (24,766 vs 3,806 stars). pentagi is written in Go under MIT; Tracecat is written in Python under AGPL-3.0. pentagi has attracted 13% as many forks as stars, Tracecat 11%. Tracecat 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
| pentagi | Tracecat | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 25K | ★ 3.8K |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-10 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.2K | ⑂ 418 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick pentagi if
- You weight community size — 25K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Tracecat if
- You want the Tracecat feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and Tracecat fits your workflow better
About pentagi
PentAGI is an MIT licensed, self hosted multi agent system written in Go that runs fully autonomous AI agents to perform complex penetration testing tasks inside an isolated Docker sandbox, built for information security professionals, researchers, and enthusiasts.
read the full pentagi overview →
About Tracecat
Tracecat is an open source security automation platform for teams and AI agents. It lives in the security operations and incident response ecosystem, combining agents, workflows, lookup tables, and case management in one Python application. The project is licensed under AGPL 3.0, with a separate paid Enterprise Edition directory and feature gates.
read the full Tracecat overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is pentagi or Tracecat more popular?
pentagi has 24,766 GitHub stars and Tracecat has 3,806. pentagi has the larger community by that measure.
Are pentagi and Tracecat free?
Both are open source. pentagi is licensed under MIT and Tracecat under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between pentagi and Tracecat?
pentagi is written in Go and Tracecat in Python. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, pentagi or Tracecat?
Choose pentagi if you want the larger community (24,766 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Tracecat if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.