Updated August 2026
    Actively maintained
    Real momentum
    36k

    CyberChef: Maintenance, Licence and Alternatives

    Perform all manner of operations within a web browser such as AES, DES and Blowfish encryption and decryption, creating hexdumps, calculating hashes, and much more.

    TL;DR • CyberChef • as of August 2026

    CyberChef is an open-source miscellaneous project, with 36k GitHub stars and a health score of 76/100. It committed 276 times in the last twelve months across 8 of those months, and its status is actively maintained. Licence: Apache-2.0. It has real momentum, so treat it as a live competitor rather than a stale repository.

    36k
    GitHub stars
    76/100
    Health score
    276
    Commits (12 mo)
    8/12
    Active months

    Maintenance health

    Status Actively maintained — Committed within the last 45 days.
    Last commit 2026-08-06
    Days since last commit 11
    Commits, last 3 months 114
    Commits, last 12 months 276
    Months with activity 8 of 12
    Last release 2026-07-24
    Archived No
    Licence Apache-2.0
    Category Miscellaneous

    Health score combines commit recency, twelve-month commit volume, months with activity, release recency and archive state. Metadata refreshed August 2026.

    What the licence lets you do

    Apache-2.0

    Permissive (MIT, Apache, BSD): you can fork it, close the source and sell it. Lowest legal friction for a commercial product.

    This matters most when you plan to sell a hosted version. A permissive licence means anyone — including a competitor with more capital — can do the same, so your defensibility has to come from distribution, support or data, not from the code.

    What CyberChef means for your idea

    Crowded · 81/100
    Miscellaneous category →

    CyberChef is shipping code consistently, so a buyer comparing your product will find a maintained free option. Price and position against the total cost of self-hosting it, not against the paid incumbent's list price.

    Assume every prospect can find a free version in five minutes. Your wedge has to be something open source structurally cannot deliver: compliance, support SLAs, managed hosting at scale, or a workflow the maintainers refuse to build.

    CyberChef: common questions

    Is CyberChef still maintained in 2026?

    Actively maintained. CyberChef recorded 276 commits over the last twelve months, with activity in 8 of those months and 114 commits in the last quarter. Last commit: 2026-08-06. Last release: 2026-07-24. Committed within the last 45 days.

    Can I use CyberChef commercially?

    CyberChef is published under Apache-2.0. Permissive (MIT, Apache, BSD): you can fork it, close the source and sell it. Lowest legal friction for a commercial product.

    How crowded is the Miscellaneous category?

    76 open-source implementations, 40 of them actively maintained, led by revealjs at 72k stars. Saturation score 81/100 — Crowded. Free, maintained alternatives already dominate this category.

    CyberChef alternatives in Miscellaneous

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    Actively maintained
    Real momentum
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    Reactive Resume

    Miscellaneous

    40k

    One-of-a-kind resume builder that keeps your privacy in mind. Completely secure, customizable, portable, open-source and free forever.

    Actively maintained
    Real momentum
    MIT

    Competing with free? Check the market first.

    IdeaProof scores your idea against live competitors, market size and 1,000+ documented startup failures in about two minutes.