DarkPhish vs Gophish

DarkPhish is a self-hosted platform for authorized phishing simulations, security-awareness training, internal security testing and defensive research. Users can prepare or import email templates, define approved recipients, schedule campaigns, monitor activity, review recipient timelines and export results. The free Community plan costs nothing and includes up to 100 managed users, one active campaign, a simulation engine, basic reporting and the core REST API. Paid plans start at €249/mo (annual). The platform lists API, Linux, self-hosted and web availability; its installer supports fresh systemd-based Linux deployments on amd64 and arm64. Supported databases include SQLite, MySQL/MariaDB and PostgreSQL. DarkPhish describes encrypted and signed browser sessions, scoped expiring API tokens, secrets hidden from normal API responses, and signed, hash-chained administrative audit records. Professional and Enterprise plans are in development, with further capabilities planned. The project states that the software is for authorized testing and simulations only.

Gophish is an open-source framework for testing an organization's exposure to phishing through simulations. It is intended for penetration testers and businesses conducting real-world exercises. Users can create or import phishing templates and edit them in a browser-based HTML editor. Campaigns send emails in the background and can be scheduled. Results arrive near real time: recipient timelines show email opens, link clicks, and submitted credentials, and campaign results can be exported for reports. For programmatic work, Gophish provides a REST API and a Python client. It can run from a downloaded binary or the official Docker container, across API, Linux, macOS, self-hosted, and Windows environments. The Gophish Community Edition repository includes an MIT License, permitting use, copying, modification, distribution, and sale subject to its terms. The plan is free at free. Listed attachment tracking covers docx, docm, pptx, xlsx, xlsm, txt, html, and ics files. Version 0.12.1 added configurable trusted origins to the CSRF handler for configurations where TLS terminates at an upstream load balancer.