Havoc Framework vs SharpSploit: Side-by-Side Comparison (2026)
Features, pricing, ratings, and pros and cons, compared head to head.
Havoc Framework is a free red-team & adversary emulation tool. SharpSploit is a free red-team & adversary emulation tool. Compare features, ratings, integrations, and community reviews side by side to find the best red-team & adversary emulation fit for your security stack. Independent and vendor-neutral: we never sell rankings.
CST VerdictBased on our analysis of NIST CSF 2.0 coverage, core features, company size fit, deployment model, here is our conclusion:
Red teams and penetration testers building custom C2 infrastructure will find Havoc's malleable profiles and team collaboration features faster to operationalize than Cobalt Strike, especially at zero cost. The 8,200-plus GitHub stars reflect active community contribution to payload obfuscation and evasion techniques that actually work against modern defenses. Skip this if your priority is managed C2 services or Windows-only operations; Havoc's strength is flexibility for operators who want to own their implant behavior, not outsource it.
Red teamers and penetration testers who need to chain post-exploitation techniques across Windows environments will find SharpSploit invaluable; it's the only free .NET library that lets you build custom payloads without touching Cobalt Strike or Empire, cutting licensing friction for smaller engagements. With 1,862 GitHub stars and active maintenance, you're getting battle-tested code that handles credential dumping, privilege escalation, and lateral movement primitives in a single compiled binary. This isn't for operators who need evasion-first tooling or those running primarily on non-Windows targets; SharpSploit assumes you control the endpoint and have time to customize rather than plug-and-play.
