Ghidra vs REA (Reverse Engineer Anything)

Side by side, as alternatives to IDA Pro. Rows that differ are highlighted; the strongest value in a row is marked. Unknown means no source yet.

Also replaces IDA Pro: + radare2 + Cutter

GhidraNationalSecurityAgency/ghidra

REA (Reverse Engineer Anything)morluto/rea

IDA Propaid product

Cost and coverage

Price

$0 software; you run it

IDA Free available; IDA Home from $365/year; IDA Pro Essential from €1,099/year, Expert from €4,999/year, Ultimate from €8,599/year (annual billing only) source ↗

Disassembly

Partly

Yes

Decompilation

Partly

Yes

Debugging

Partly

Yes

AI-assisted analysis

Partly

Yes

Jobs covered

3 of 4 jobs

1 of 4 jobs

All 4

Popularity and activity (from GitHub)

Stars

92,167

348,336Top

—

Gain this week

Unknown

—

Signal

Building history

—

Commits / 4 wk

196

2,818Top

—

Latest release

Ghidra_12.1.4_build · 2026-09-21

rea-agents-6.7.0 · 2026-10-18Top

—

Commits / 12 wk

606

2,834

—

People committing / 12 mo

106+

100+

—

Issues opened / closed, 30 days

81 / 56

1518 / 932

—

Facts, with sources on each project page

Runs on my machine?Differs

Yes, desktop application on your own machine; also runs headless

Yes, analysis runs locally; your agent's model provider sees the tool results

Hosted by the vendor

Code licenceDiffers

Apache-2.0

MIT (third-party material keeps its own licences)

—

Model weights licence

No model weights

—

Commercial useDiffers

Yes, Apache-2.0

Yes, MIT; commercial providers (IDA, Hopper, JEB) need their own licences, and targets' terms still apply

—

Paid services needed?Differs

None required

REA is free; it needs an MCP-capable agent (model costs depend on it); IDA, Hopper and JEB are optional paid providers, Ghidra is free

Subscription

HardwareDiffers

4 GB RAM, 1 GB storage; dual monitors suggested

Not documented beyond Node.js 22.19+ and the chosen provider's requirements

—

Operating systemsDiffers

Windows 10 (1809+), Linux, macOS 10.13+; 64-bit only

macOS and Linux; Windows documented but Windows Ghidra support is experimental

—

Setup effortDiffers

Medium; install JDK 25 64-bit, then unzip the release and run ghidraRun

Easy; npx rea-agents setup registers the MCP server with your agent; native analysis needs a provider installed

—

Stars over time

Switch to Growth % to compare projects of different sizes fairly.

Ghidra
REA (Reverse Engineer Anything)

Focus a point, use arrow keys, or tap for its value.

Tracked daily since 15 Oct 2026. Dashed history: estimated from public records of when people starred the repo. Lines connect observations only; gaps contain no measured points.

Growth % starts at each project's first observed point in the shown range. Zero-star starts are unavailable.

Notes for a video or post

A plain summary with today's date and a link to the sources. Check each project page before you publish.

Ghidra vs REA (Reverse Engineer Anything) (as alternatives to IDA Pro)
Figures from RepoQuarry, 21 Oct 2026. Sources: https://repoquarry.dev/compare?ids=ghidra,rea&product=ida-pro

IDA Pro: IDA Free available; IDA Home from $365/year; IDA Pro Essential from €1,099/year, Expert from €4,999/year, Ultimate from €8,599/year (annual billing only)
Ghidra: free software; does 3 of 4 IDA Pro jobs
REA (Reverse Engineer Anything): free software; does 1 of 4 IDA Pro jobs

- Ghidra: 92,167 GitHub stars, 606 commits in 12 weeks, licence Apache-2.0
- REA (Reverse Engineer Anything): 348,336 GitHub stars, 2,834 commits in 12 weeks, licence MIT (third-party material keeps its own licences)

Where they differ:
- Runs on my machine?: Ghidra Yes, desktop application on your own machine; also runs headless; REA (Reverse Engineer Anything) Yes, analysis runs locally; your agent's model provider sees the tool results
- Code licence: Ghidra Apache-2.0; REA (Reverse Engineer Anything) MIT (third-party material keeps its own licences)
- Commercial use: Ghidra Yes, Apache-2.0; REA (Reverse Engineer Anything) Yes, MIT; commercial providers (IDA, Hopper, JEB) need their own licences, and targets' terms still apply
- Paid services needed?: Ghidra None required; REA (Reverse Engineer Anything) REA is free; it needs an MCP-capable agent (model costs depend on it); IDA, Hopper and JEB are optional paid providers, Ghidra is free
- Hardware: Ghidra 4 GB RAM, 1 GB storage; dual monitors suggested; REA (Reverse Engineer Anything) Not documented beyond Node.js 22.19+ and the chosen provider's requirements
- Operating systems: Ghidra Windows 10 (1809+), Linux, macOS 10.13+; 64-bit only; REA (Reverse Engineer Anything) macOS and Linux; Windows documented but Windows Ghidra support is experimental
- Setup effort: Ghidra Medium; install JDK 25 64-bit, then unzip the release and run ghidraRun; REA (Reverse Engineer Anything) Easy; npx rea-agents setup registers the MCP server with your agent; native analysis needs a provider installed

Stars show popularity, not quality. Check each project page before publishing.

Want share images and a ready video description? Open a project's creator kit.

Numbers: GitHub, fetched nightly. Facts: read from each project's own documentation, with the source on its page. How we check. NationalSecurityAgency/ghidra ↗morluto/rea ↗

Ghidra vs REA (Reverse Engineer Anything)

Stars over time

Notes for a video or post

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