Labs-Pentest vs NightShade: Side-by-Side Comparison (2026)
Features, pricing, ratings, and pros & cons — compared head-to-head.
Labs-Pentest is a free cyber range training tool. NightShade is a free cyber range training tool. 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 available product data, here is our conclusion:
Security teams building internal red teams or training junior analysts on a budget should use Labs-Pentest for hands-on penetration testing practice without licensing costs. Its 272 GitHub stars reflect active maintenance and a collection of real CTF challenges that beat sanitized vendor labs for teaching actual exploitation technique. Skip this if your goal is measuring individual competency through formal assessments; Labs-Pentest is a free practice ground, not a credentialing platform.
Security teams building internal capture-the-flag programs or running regular staff competitions will find NightShade's Django framework easier to customize and deploy than commercial platforms, especially if you already have Python infrastructure. The multi-tenant architecture and support for multiple contest formats mean you can run concurrent competitions across departments without spinning up separate instances. Skip this if you need managed hosting or don't have engineering resources to handle framework-level configuration; the 126 GitHub stars suggest a smaller ecosystem of templates and community troubleshooting compared to established alternatives.
