readpe vs PLASMA: 2026 Comparison
readpe is a free digital forensics and incident response tool. PLASMA is a free digital forensics and incident response tool. Compare features, ratings, integrations, and community reviews side by side to find the best digital forensics and incident response fit for your security stack.
CST VerdictBased on our analysis of available product data, here is our conclusion:
Incident responders and malware analysts who need to quickly reverse-engineer Windows binaries will find readpe invaluable; it extracts PE headers, sections, imports, and entropy metrics from the command line faster than GUI tools and without leaving forensic artifacts. The tool is free and open-source with active maintenance, making it a standard addition to incident response playbooks alongside strings and objdump. Skip this if your team relies on GUI-based static analysis platforms or needs automated malware classification; readpe requires familiarity with PE file internals and Windows architecture to be useful.
Reverse engineers and incident responders analyzing malware samples or suspicious binaries need PLASMA for its syntax-highlighted assembly output, which cuts analysis time compared to raw disassembler dumps. The free pricing and 3,000+ GitHub stars signal active maintenance and real adoption among security practitioners. Skip this if your team primarily needs automated binary triage or threat intelligence integration; PLASMA is a manual analysis tool that rewards expertise, not a one-click malware classifier.
