What is the best free alternative to Nuclei?
Magika (Google) is the closest free alternative to Nuclei: same Security & IT Operations sub-category, and it is free. Deep-learning file-content type detection across 200+ types
Best free Nuclei alternatives
Looking for a free alternative to Nuclei? Here are 9 security & it operations worth trying — 7 with a free tier. Nuclei itself is free.
| Tool | Nuclei (you searched) | Magika (Google) | Strix | PentestGPT |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing | free | free | free | free |
| Best for | Template-based vulnerability scanner with thousands of community templates | Deep-learning file-content type detection across 200+ types | Open-source autonomous agents that probe apps and validate vulnerabilities with proof-of-concept exploits | Agentic framework automating penetration-testing and CTF tasks with LLMs |
| Visit | Open ↗ | Open ↗ | Open ↗ | Open ↗ |
Nuclei alternatives — straight answers
Are there free Nuclei alternatives?
Yes — 7 of the 9 alternatives listed here are free or freemium: Magika (Google), Strix, PentestGPT, garak (NVIDIA), Snyk. The other 2 are trial or paid.
Is Nuclei free?
Nuclei is free. There is no paid plan attached to it in the catalog.
How were these Nuclei alternatives chosen?
They are the other tools in Security & IT Operations, then the rest of Industry-Specific Tools, ordered free tiers first and capped at 9. There is no sponsorship and no paid placement in that ordering — only the pricing tier decides.
All Nuclei alternatives
Browse Security & IT Operations →✦ WhyA Nuclei alternative — Deep-learning file-content type detection across 200+ types.
- Deep-learning file-content type detection across 200+ types
- Millisecond inference on CPU
- CLI, Python, JS and Rust bindings
- Used inside Gmail and VirusTotal pipelines
✦ WhyA Nuclei alternative — Open-source autonomous agents that probe apps and validate vulnerabilities with proof-of-concept exploits.
- Open-source autonomous agents that probe apps and validate vulnerabilities with proof-of-concept exploits
- Runs locally with any LLM provider
- Apache-2.0
✦ WhyA Nuclei alternative — Agentic framework automating penetration-testing and CTF tasks with LLMs.
- Agentic framework automating penetration-testing and CTF tasks with LLMs
- Academic (USENIX Security) origins, MIT licensed
- Bring your own model or API key
✦ WhyA Nuclei alternative — Open-source scanner probing LLMs for prompt injection, jailbreaks, leakage and toxicity.
- Open-source scanner probing LLMs for prompt injection, jailbreaks, leakage and toxicity
- Plugs into Hugging Face, OpenAI-compatible and local models
- Apache-2.0
Snyk
Security & IT Operations
✦ WhyA Nuclei alternative — AI-powered code and dependency security.
- AI-powered code and dependency security
- Fixes vulnerabilities in your PRs
- Secures AI-generated code
- Free developer tier
Socket
Security & IT Operations
✦ WhyA Nuclei alternative — Detects compromised packages via behavioral analysis (network calls, install scripts) rather than just CVE matching.
- Detects compromised packages via behavioral analysis (network calls, install scripts) rather than just CVE matching
- Always free for open-source projects, unlimited devs/repos on a monthly scan cap
- Blocks malicious dependencies automatically at install time
Aikido Security
Security & IT Operations
✦ WhyA Nuclei alternative — All-in-one AppSec: SAST, dependency scanning, secrets detection, cloud/IaC scanning in one platform.
- All-in-one AppSec: SAST, dependency scanning, secrets detection, cloud/IaC scanning in one platform
- Free plan covers 2 users, 10 repos, core scanners, no card required
- AI Pentesting simulates real-world attacks trained on real exploits
✦ WhyA Nuclei alternative — AI copilot for security operations.
- AI copilot for security operations
- Incident summaries and threat hunting
- Agents for phishing and alerts
- Enterprise consumption pricing
✦ WhyA Nuclei alternative — Agentic SOC analyst on the Falcon platform.
- Agentic SOC analyst on the Falcon platform
- Autonomous triage and detection
- Natural-language threat questions
- Enterprise pricing