Awesome Security vs h4cker
Which should you use? A side-by-side look at what each one does, who it suits, what it costs, how hard it is to set up, and where each falls short.
Open source · MIT
A curated, community-maintained list of security tools, books, and resources, organized by topic.
Open source · MIT
A large curated collection of cybersecurity links, scripts, labs and training notes.
The short answer
Choose Awesome Security if you need…
- Security learners looking for well-known tools in a given area
- Penetration testers browsing scanning and recon tools
- Security engineers comparing options within a category
- Anyone wanting a broad overview of the security tooling landscape
Choose h4cker if you need…
- Students looking for a structured starting point in cybersecurity
- Security learners who want to find resources by topic
- Certification candidates looking for study references
- Instructors who want curated material to point students to
Side-by-side
| Awesome Security | h4cker | |
|---|---|---|
| Type | Curated list | Curated list |
| Price | Free and open source | Free and open source |
| Licence | MIT | MIT |
| GitHub stars | 15.1k | 30k |
| Setup difficulty | Beginner | Beginner |
| How you get it | Read it online | Clone and build from source |
| Main language | — | Jupyter Notebook |
| Last code update | 10 months ago | 15 days ago |
What each one is
Awesome Security
Awesome Security is a categorized list of links to security software, libraries, books, and reference material. It is organized into sections such as network scanning, endpoint protection, web security, threat intelligence, and forensics. People use it as a starting point to discover tools for a specific security task instead of searching from scratch.
h4cker
This is a large GitHub repository of cybersecurity references, scripts, tools, labs and training material maintained by Omar Santos. It is organized into folders for topics such as offensive and defensive security, cloud and container security, AI security, and certification study resources. It is described as supplemental material for Santos's books, video courses and live training.
Best for
Awesome Security
- Security learners looking for well-known tools in a given area
- Penetration testers browsing scanning and recon tools
- Security engineers comparing options within a category
- Anyone wanting a broad overview of the security tooling landscape
h4cker
- Students looking for a structured starting point in cybersecurity
- Security learners who want to find resources by topic
- Certification candidates looking for study references
- Instructors who want curated material to point students to
Strengths
Awesome Security
- Broad coverage across many security subfields in one place
- Organized into clear categories with short descriptions
- Widely starred and under the MIT license
h4cker
- Broad coverage across many security domains in one place
- Organized into folders with a clear directory overview in the README
- Licensed under MIT, so it is free to use and reuse under those terms
Not ideal for
Awesome Security
- People who need a ready-to-run tool: this is a list of links, not software itself
- Readers wanting vetted security advice, since entries are community-submitted and the README does not describe a review process
- People needing current information on each tool, since the list may contain outdated links
h4cker
- People who need a single installable tool, since this is a collection rather than software (the README describes it as references, scripts, and labs)
- Readers wanting vetted, up-to-date guidance on every linked item, since the README does not describe a verification process for each resource
Trade-offs
Awesome Security
- Entries are links with brief descriptions, so you must visit each project to evaluate it
- Community-maintained, so quality and link freshness can vary
- Truncated README in this analysis means not all sections were reviewed
h4cker
- Its size can make it hard to know where to start without guidance
- The README is truncated here, so specific contents and currency of each item could not be verified
- Being a link collection, it provides no installed functionality of its own
Getting started
Awesome Security
Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/sbilly/awesome-securityh4cker
Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/The-Art-of-Hacking/h4ckerFrequently asked questions
What is the difference between Awesome Security and h4cker?
Awesome Security: A curated, community-maintained list of security tools, books, and resources, organized by topic. h4cker: A large curated collection of cybersecurity links, scripts, labs and training notes. Awesome Security suits security learners looking for well-known tools in a given area, while h4cker suits students looking for a structured starting point in cybersecurity.
Are Awesome Security and h4cker free?
Awesome Security: Free and open source. h4cker: Free and open source.
Is Awesome Security or h4cker more popular?
h4cker has more GitHub stars (30k) than Awesome Security (15.1k). Popularity isn't the same as fit — check which one matches your use case above.
What are other alternatives to Awesome Security and h4cker?
Other options people compare them with include awesome-hacking, SecLists.
Keep comparing
Built from our catalogue entries for both products: open-source details come from each project's README (AI-assisted, refreshed weekly) and GitHub data; AI-tool details are editorial. Spotted something wrong? Let us know from either product's page.