HoneyWRT Intrusion Detection System vs HonTel: Side-by-Side Comparison (2026)
Features, pricing, ratings, and pros & cons — compared head-to-head.
HoneyWRT Intrusion Detection System is a free honeypots & deception tool. HonTel is a free honeypots & deception tool. Compare features, ratings, integrations, and community reviews side by side to find the best honeypots & deception fit for your security stack.
CST VerdictBased on our analysis of available product data, here is our conclusion:
HoneyWRT Intrusion Detection System
Small teams and researchers with limited budgets who need early warning of reconnaissance activity will appreciate HoneyWRT's simplicity; it requires minimal infrastructure to deploy Python-based honeypots across multiple ports and log attacker behavior at zero cost. The 24 GitHub stars reflect a niche but active community, though the low adoption rate means you're troubleshooting largely alone. Skip this if you need production-grade alerting, threat intelligence feeds, or integration with your existing SIEM; HoneyWRT is a learning tool and experimental sensor, not a replacement for network IDS.
Security teams running legacy infrastructure with exposed Telnet ports should deploy HonTel to catch reconnaissance activity that IP reputation lists miss; it's free and requires minimal setup, making it practical for resource-constrained ops teams managing aging systems. With 162 GitHub stars and active maintenance, the tool delivers reliable signal for a narrowly focused attack surface. Skip this if your environment has already eliminated Telnet entirely or if you need honeypots covering SSH, HTTP, or databases; HonTel does one thing well and stops there.
