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

Fortra Cobalt Strike: Threat emulation product for adversary simulations and red team operations. Built by Fortra. Core capabilities include Post-exploitation payload (Beacon) with PowerShell execution, keylogging, screenshots, and file downloads, Malleable Command and Control (C2) language for network indicator customization, Browser pivoting for hijacking authenticated web sessions.

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.

Fortra Cobalt Strike is made by Fortra. 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. Fortra Cobalt Strike and Ivy are both Red-Team & Adversary Emulation products, and both cover Red Team. Key differences: Fortra 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.