Core Security Cobalt Strike vs Ivy: side-by-side comparison (2026)

Core Security Cobalt Strike: Post-exploitation threat emulation platform for red team operations. Built by Core Security.

Ivy: Ivy is a payload creation framework for executing arbitrary VBA source code directly in memory, utilizing programmatical access to load, decrypt, and execute shellcode.

The table above shows where their features, integrations, deployment and company size fit differ.

Core Security Cobalt Strike is made by Core Security. Ivy is open-source with 744 GitHub stars. The vendor behind a product decides its roadmap, support, and longevity, so check each company's profile before you commit.

Often, yes. Core Security Cobalt Strike and Ivy are both Red-Team & Adversary Emulation products, and both cover Red Team. Key differences: Core Security Cobalt Strike is Commercial while Ivy is Free, Ivy is open-source. Use the table above to see where features, deployment and company size fit differ.