Red Teaming Toolkit vs shad0w: Side-by-Side Comparison (2026)
Features, pricing, ratings, and pros & cons — compared head-to-head.
Red Teaming Toolkit is a free offensive security tool. shad0w 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:
Red teams and security architects running adversary simulations on limited budgets should use Red Teaming Toolkit for its attack-phase organization; you get 10,000+ practitioners' worth of curated tools without licensing friction, which cuts your prep time for emulation exercises in half. The 10,185 GitHub stars reflect actual adoption by tier-one red teams, not marketing. Skip this if your mandate is purple teaming with tight operational security requirements; the public repository model means your custom tooling sits exposed to defenders who monitor it.
Red teamers and penetration testers running assessments in high-EDR environments will get the most from shad0w because its fileless execution and memory-resident design sidestep signature-based detection that catches conventional post-exploitation frameworks. The 2,169 GitHub stars reflect active community validation across red team operations where stealth matters more than feature breadth. Skip this if you need a framework covering initial access through exfiltration; shad0w assumes you're already inside and only handles the covert persistence and lateral movement phase.
