radare2 vs REA (Reverse Engineer Anything) vs Ghidra

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.

radare2radareorg/radare2

REA (Reverse Engineer Anything)morluto/rea

GhidraNationalSecurityAgency/ghidra

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

3 of 4 jobs

All 4

Popularity and activity (from GitHub)

Stars

25,111

348,336Top

92,167

—

Gain this week

Unknown

—

Signal

Building history

—

Commits / 4 wk

590

2,818Top

196

—

Latest release

6.2.4 · 2026-10-05

rea-agents-6.7.0 · 2026-10-18Top

Ghidra_12.1.4_build · 2026-09-21

—

Commits / 12 wk

1,240

2,834

606

—

People committing / 12 mo

54+

100+

106+

—

Issues opened / closed, 30 days

24 / 44

1518 / 932

81 / 56

—

Facts, with sources on each project page

Runs on my machine?Differs

Yes, command-line tool on your own machine

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

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

Hosted by the vendor

Code licenceDiffers

Mostly LGPLv3 (version suffix not stated); plugins and dependencies vary, some GPL

MIT (third-party material keeps its own licences)

Apache-2.0

—

Model weights licence

No model weights

—

Commercial useDiffers

Yes under LGPL-3.0 conditions; GPL parts can be left out with --without-gpl

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

Yes, Apache-2.0

—

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

None required

Subscription

HardwareDiffers

Not documented

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

4 GB RAM, 1 GB storage; dual monitors suggested

—

Operating systemsDiffers

Windows, Linux, macOS, BSDs, Android, iOS and more

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

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

—

Setup effortDiffers

Easy with release binaries (.deb, .pkg, Windows zip); source install via sys/install.sh is recommended

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

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

—

Stars over time

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

radare2
REA (Reverse Engineer Anything)
Ghidra

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.

radare2 vs REA (Reverse Engineer Anything) vs Ghidra (as alternatives to IDA Pro)
Figures from RepoQuarry, 21 Oct 2026. Sources: https://repoquarry.dev/compare?ids=radare2,rea,ghidra&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)
radare2: free software; does 3 of 4 IDA Pro jobs
REA (Reverse Engineer Anything): free software; does 1 of 4 IDA Pro jobs
Ghidra: free software; does 3 of 4 IDA Pro jobs

- radare2: 25,111 GitHub stars, 1,240 commits in 12 weeks, licence Mostly LGPLv3 (version suffix not stated); plugins and dependencies vary, some GPL
- REA (Reverse Engineer Anything): 348,336 GitHub stars, 2,834 commits in 12 weeks, licence MIT (third-party material keeps its own licences)
- Ghidra: 92,167 GitHub stars, 606 commits in 12 weeks, licence Apache-2.0

Where they differ:
- Runs on my machine?: radare2 Yes, command-line tool on your own machine; REA (Reverse Engineer Anything) Yes, analysis runs locally; your agent's model provider sees the tool results; Ghidra Yes, desktop application on your own machine; also runs headless
- Code licence: radare2 Mostly LGPLv3 (version suffix not stated); plugins and dependencies vary, some GPL; REA (Reverse Engineer Anything) MIT (third-party material keeps its own licences); Ghidra Apache-2.0
- Commercial use: radare2 Yes under LGPL-3.0 conditions; GPL parts can be left out with --without-gpl; REA (Reverse Engineer Anything) Yes, MIT; commercial providers (IDA, Hopper, JEB) need their own licences, and targets' terms still apply; Ghidra Yes, Apache-2.0
- Paid services needed?: radare2 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; Ghidra None required
- Hardware: radare2 Not documented; REA (Reverse Engineer Anything) Not documented beyond Node.js 22.19+ and the chosen provider's requirements; Ghidra 4 GB RAM, 1 GB storage; dual monitors suggested
- Operating systems: radare2 Windows, Linux, macOS, BSDs, Android, iOS and more; REA (Reverse Engineer Anything) macOS and Linux; Windows documented but Windows Ghidra support is experimental; Ghidra Windows 10 (1809+), Linux, macOS 10.13+; 64-bit only
- Setup effort: radare2 Easy with release binaries (.deb, .pkg, Windows zip); source install via sys/install.sh is recommended; REA (Reverse Engineer Anything) Easy; npx rea-agents setup registers the MCP server with your agent; native analysis needs a provider installed; Ghidra Medium; install JDK 25 64-bit, then unzip the release and run ghidraRun

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. radareorg/radare2 ↗morluto/rea ↗NationalSecurityAgency/ghidra ↗

radare2 vs REA (Reverse Engineer Anything) vs Ghidra

Stars over time

Notes for a video or post

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