Ghost in the Shellcode vs Hack The Box CTF Platform: Side-by-Side Comparison (2026)
Features, pricing, ratings, and pros & cons — compared head-to-head.
Ghost in the Shellcode is a free cyber range training tool. Hack The Box CTF Platform is a commercial cyber range training tool by Hack The Box. 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 NIST CSF 2.0 coverage, core features, integrations, company size fit, here is our conclusion:
Security teams building incident response muscle in low-stakes environments should use Ghost in the Shellcode. The annual jeopardy-style format forces participants to think like attackers across multiple domains,forensics, reverse engineering, cryptography, exploitation,in ways that classroom labs cannot replicate, and the free model means you can send 10 people or 100 without budget friction. Skip this if your team needs continuous, self-paced training or role-specific paths; Ghost in the Shellcode is a once-yearly event that rewards generalists over specialists.
Security leaders at mid-market and enterprise organizations need a CTF platform that actually scales team assessments without requiring weeks of scenario engineering, and Hack The Box CTF Platform handles that in under 10 minutes while supporting thousands of concurrent players. The 200+ pre-built challenge library spans realistic threat categories like APT intrusion and ransomware, plus the Threat Range module integrates live attack data for blue team drills that map directly to NIST PR.AT and ID.RA functions. Skip this if your organization needs post-incident tabletop facilitation or requires on-premises deployment; Hack The Box is purpose-built for hands-on skills development and recruiting pipelines, not forensic simulation or air-gapped environments.
