head to head · open source
ProjectDiscovery vs Tracecat
ProjectDiscovery has 31,319 GitHub stars, 3,877 forks, 107 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Tracecat has 3,806 stars, 418 forks, 137 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. ProjectDiscovery leads on adoption by 723% (31,319 vs 3,806 stars). ProjectDiscovery is written in Go under MIT; Tracecat is written in Python under AGPL-3.0. ProjectDiscovery has attracted 12% 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. The two share 1 topic tag (security), 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
| ProjectDiscovery | Tracecat | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 31K | ★ 3.8K |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.9K | ⑂ 418 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick ProjectDiscovery if
- You weight community size — 31K 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 ProjectDiscovery
Nuclei is a high performance, open source vulnerability scanner built by ProjectDiscovery, part of the ProjectDiscovery ecosystem. It operates as a CLI tool using a simple YAML based DSL to define custom vulnerability checks, enabling precise, real world exploitation simulation to eliminate false positives.
read the full ProjectDiscovery 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 ProjectDiscovery or Tracecat more popular?
ProjectDiscovery has 31,319 GitHub stars and Tracecat has 3,806. ProjectDiscovery has the larger community by that measure.
Are ProjectDiscovery and Tracecat free?
Both are open source. ProjectDiscovery is licensed under MIT and Tracecat under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between ProjectDiscovery and Tracecat?
ProjectDiscovery 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, ProjectDiscovery or Tracecat?
Choose ProjectDiscovery if you want the larger community (31,319 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Tracecat if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.