head to head · open source
PentestGPT vs vuls
PentestGPT has 15,534 GitHub stars, 2,706 forks, 81 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. vuls has 12,264 stars, 1,243 forks, 92 open issues and last shipped yesterday. PentestGPT leads on adoption by 27% (15,534 vs 12,264 stars). PentestGPT is written in Python under MIT; vuls is written in Go under GPL-3.0. PentestGPT has attracted 17% as many forks as stars, vuls 10%. vuls 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
| PentestGPT | vuls | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 16K | ★ 12K |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Python | Go |
| Last push | 2026-07-14 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.7K | ⑂ 1.2K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick PentestGPT if
- You weight community size — 16K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick vuls if
- You want the vuls feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and vuls fits your workflow better
About PentestGPT
PentestGPT is an MIT licensed Python framework that uses large language models to run automated penetration tests and CTF challenges, aimed at penetration testers, security engineers and CTF players who want an agent to drive the tooling rather than working through it by hand.
read the full PentestGPT overview →
About vuls
Vuls is an agent less vulnerability scanner written in Go and licensed under GPL 3.0, aimed at system administrators and security teams that must find and track known vulnerabilities across Linux, FreeBSD, Windows and macOS hosts, containers, WordPress installs, programming language libraries and network devices without installing an agent on every machine.
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Frequently asked questions
Is PentestGPT or vuls more popular?
PentestGPT has 15,534 GitHub stars and vuls has 12,264. PentestGPT has the larger community by that measure.
Are PentestGPT and vuls free?
Both are open source. PentestGPT is licensed under MIT and vuls under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between PentestGPT and vuls?
PentestGPT is written in Python and vuls in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, PentestGPT or vuls?
Choose PentestGPT if you want the larger community (15,534 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose vuls if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.