YARI vs Stairwell: 2026 Comparison
YARI is a free threat hunting tool. Stairwell is a commercial threat hunting tool by Stairwell. 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 NIST CSF 2.0 coverage, core features, integrations, company size fit, here is our conclusion:
Threat hunters writing or debugging YARA rules at scale will find YARI's interactive debugger cuts iteration time significantly; you step through rule logic, evaluate constants, and test string matches without recompiling and re-running against samples each time. At 90 GitHub stars with zero licensing friction, it's the kind of lightweight tool that gets adopted fast in lean SOCs. Skip this if your team writes rules infrequently or relies heavily on GUI-based rule builders; YARI assumes comfort with command-line workflows and the YARA syntax itself.
Mid-market and enterprise SOC teams who need to move fast on file-based indicators will find Stairwell's hash and IOC lookup engine faster than bouncing between five different threat intelligence feeds. The tool's integration with Cortex, Chronicle, and CrowdStrike means your analysts can pivot from detection to malware variant discovery without leaving their existing workflows, and the private YARA vault lets you test and store detection logic without exposing your methodology to external platforms. Skip this if your primary pain is endpoint visibility or compliance reporting; Stairwell is built for teams that hunt actively and need to confirm whether a file hash actually matters before escalating.
