Fortra Cobalt Strike vs mimikatz: side-by-side comparison (2026)
Fortra Cobalt Strike is a commercial red-team & adversary emulation solution by Fortra. mimikatz is a free red-team & adversary emulation solution. Features, integrations, deployment and the company behind each one, side by side.
Threat emulation product for adversary simulations and red team operations
A powerful tool for extracting passwords and performing various Windows security operations.
Side-by-side comparison
Feature
Fortra Cobalt Strike
mimikatz
Pricing model
Commercial
Free
Category
Red-Team & Adversary Emulation
Red-Team & Adversary Emulation
Deployment and fit
Deployment type
On-Premises
On-Premises
Company size fit
Mid-Market, Enterprise
Mid-Market, Enterprise
Open source
GitHub stars
–
21,336
Last commit
–
May 2025
Company
Company
Fortra
–
Use cases and capabilities
Red Team
Yes
No
Post Exploitation
Yes
No
C2
Yes
No
Lateral Movement
Yes
No
Memory Forensics
No
Yes
Password Cracking
No
Yes
Windows
No
Yes
Active Directory
No
Yes
Core features
- 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
- System Profiler for target fingerprinting and reconnaissance
- Shared team server for collaborative red team operations
- Asynchronous low and slow communication for stealth
- Multiple report types including activity, hosts, IOCs, sessions, and TTPs
- Extensible framework supporting custom scripts and extensions
No features listed
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