awesome-vulnerable-apps vs Commix-Testbed: 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. Commix-Testbed 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 detection rules for command injection vulnerabilities should use Commix-Testbed to validate their signatures against real exploitation patterns; the 182 GitHub stars reflect active use by practitioners who stress-test detection tools rather than rely on vendor claims. The free pricing means you can spin up vulnerable apps without budget friction, then immediately measure whether your IDS, WAF, or SIEM actually catches the payloads you care about. Skip this if your team has no command injection risk in scope or lacks the engineering bandwidth to run a local testbed; it requires hands-on configuration, not point-and-click deployment.
