head to head · open source
Tracecat vs rustinel
Tracecat has 3,826 GitHub stars, 432 forks, 137 open issues and last shipped today. rustinel has 501 stars, 62 forks, 60 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Tracecat leads on adoption by 664% (3,826 vs 501 stars). Tracecat is written in Python under AGPL-3.0; rustinel is written in Rust under Apache-2.0. Tracecat has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, rustinel 12%. Tracecat was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (incident-response), 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
| Tracecat | rustinel | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 3.8K | ★ 501 |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-10-08 | 2026-10-07 |
| Forks | ⑂ 432 | ⑂ 62 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Tracecat if
- You weight community size — 3.8K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick rustinel if
- You want the rustinel feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and rustinel fits your workflow better
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 →
About rustinel
Rustinel is an open source endpoint detection agent for Windows, Linux, and macOS that runs Sigma, YARA, and IOC rules against native telemetry locally, with no cloud account required.
read the full rustinel overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Tracecat or rustinel more popular?
Tracecat has 3,826 GitHub stars and rustinel has 501. Tracecat has the larger community by that measure.
Are Tracecat and rustinel free?
Both are open source. Tracecat is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and rustinel under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Tracecat and rustinel?
Tracecat is written in Python and rustinel 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, Tracecat or rustinel?
Choose Tracecat if you want the larger community (3,826 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose rustinel if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.