ILSpy vs smali/baksmali: 2026 Comparison
ILSpy is a free offensive security tool. smali/baksmali is a free offensive security tool. Compare features, ratings, integrations, and community reviews side by side to find the best offensive security fit for your security stack.
CST VerdictBased on our analysis of available product data, here is our conclusion:
.NET developers and security researchers doing adversarial code review need ILSpy because it's the only free decompiler that actually handles modern C# constructs and async patterns without mangling the output. Its 24,766 GitHub stars reflect adoption by practitioners who've rejected paid alternatives; the tool's modular frontend architecture means you can pipe decompiled IL into custom analysis scripts instead of staring at a GUI. Skip this if your threat model requires decompiling obfuscated assemblies at scale; ILSpy struggles with commercial packers and gives up where commercial tools like dnSpy push through.
Android security teams and red teamers doing malware analysis need smali/baksmali because it's the only tool that reliably converts Dalvik bytecode back to human-readable assembly, something closed-source decompilers routinely botch on obfuscated samples. The 6,608 GitHub stars reflect actual usage across threat intelligence shops and forensics labs where the open-source codebase lets you patch it when vendors' tools fail. This isn't for buyers wanting a polished UI or one-click threat scoring; you're reading assembly code by hand and the learning curve is real.
