awesome-vulnerable-apps vs CloudGoat: Side-by-Side Comparison (2026)
Features, pricing, ratings, and pros & cons — compared head-to-head.
awesome-vulnerable-apps is a free cyber range training tool. CloudGoat is a free cyber range training tool. Compare features, ratings, integrations, and community reviews side by side to find the best cyber range training fit for your security stack.
CST VerdictBased on our analysis of available product data, here is our conclusion:
Security teams building internal cyber ranges or red team labs should use awesome-vulnerable-apps for its curated library of real vulnerable applications; the 1,229 GitHub stars reflect active community maintenance and regular updates rather than abandoned code. This works best for hands-on training where learners need to exploit actual CVEs in isolated environments, not for compliance checkbox exercises or managed security service delivery. Skip it if your team needs guided labs with scoring rubrics or instructor dashboards; awesome-vulnerable-apps is a raw ingredient list, not a packaged training platform.
Security teams building AWS-native incident response skills need CloudGoat because it's free, hands-on, and designed specifically around real misconfiguration chains rather than generic vulnerabilities. The 3,500+ GitHub stars reflect adoption by security shops serious enough to run their own labs, and the capture-the-flag format forces teams to think like attackers moving laterally through cloud infrastructure. Skip this if your organization needs managed training with compliance reporting or if you lack engineers who can provision and troubleshoot AWS environments independently; CloudGoat teaches through broken infrastructure, not polished courses.
