yaml2yara vs Shotgunyara: 2026 Comparison
yaml2yara is a free threat hunting tool. Shotgunyara is a free threat hunting tool. Compare features, ratings, integrations, and community reviews side by side to find the best threat hunting fit for your security stack.
CST VerdictBased on our analysis of available product data, here is our conclusion:
Threat hunters and detection engineers who build rules in bulk will appreciate yaml2yara for collapsing YAML config into runnable YARA signatures without manual syntax work. The tool cuts rule creation friction at the point where most teams lose momentum: the transition from detection logic to deployable code. Skip this if your team already has mature rule templating or lacks the engineering bandwidth to adopt a new workflow; the 22 GitHub stars suggest this remains a niche utility rather than a standard in most SOCs.
Threat hunters who need fast Yara rule generation for malware analysis will find Shotgunyara valuable for its specific strength: automating encoding variants (XOR, base64) that manual rule writing would otherwise consume hours on. The free pricing and GitHub availability mean zero procurement friction for lean security teams. This is not for buyers seeking a managed threat hunting platform or integration with their SIEM; Shotgunyara is a focused CLI utility that lives in your analyst's toolkit, not a platform replacement.
