Frida vs radare2
Frida
frida.reradare2
radare.orgSide by side
| Figure | Frida | radare2 |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | Yes | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | Yes |
| Android | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · Reverse Engineering Tools | 8.7 (#4) | 7.6 (#31) |
| GUI | Luma is presented as the official Frida app with persistent sessions, a live REPL, an integrated frida-trace handler editor and real-time collaboration. | The project identifies iaito as its official Qt graphical interface. |
| Installation | CLI installation requires a recent Python 3.x release and Windows, macOS or GNU/Linux; the documented command is pip install frida-tools. | The project recommends installing from its Git repository and also documents released binaries, Nix packaging, and source builds. |
| Integrations | Luma can browse and import scripts from CodeShare and add npm packages through its built-in package manager. | Listed plugins include r2ghidra, r2frida, r2yara, and r2pipe for scripting from other programming languages. |
| Scripting | Frida lets users inject scripts into running processes to hook functions, inspect APIs, or trace application code without source code. | The command-line tool supports scripting with an embedded JavaScript interpreter or through r2pipe. |
| Support | Frida’s contact page lists a Telegram group and the #frida IRC channel for contacting the community. | The project points users to its official book, chats, and community channels for questions and feedback. |
Plans
In their own words
Frida
Frida is a dynamic instrumentation toolkit for developers, reverse-engineers, and security researchers. It lets users place scripts in running processes to hook functions, inspect APIs, and trace application code without source code. Documented uses include API tracing, diagnostics, encrypted-protocol analysis, and black-box testing.
Frida supports injected, embedded, and preloaded instrumentation. When injection is unavailable, Frida Gadget can be embedded in a program, including on jailed iOS and Android systems. Supported targets include Windows, macOS, GNU/Linux, iOS, watchOS, tvOS, Android, FreeBSD, and QNX. Language bindings include Node.js, Python, Swift, .NET, Qt/Qml, and Go, alongside a C API. The CLI tools require Python and run on Windows, macOS, or GNU/Linux; the documented installation command is `pip install frida-tools`.
radare2
radare2 is a free, UNIX-like reverse-engineering framework and command-line toolset for working with binaries across many architectures. It can analyze, emulate, debug, modify, and disassemble binaries, as well as support firmware analysis and decompilation. The tools can edit local files, view kernel memory, and debug programs locally or through remote GDB and WinDbg servers. Scripting is available through an embedded JavaScript interpreter or r2pipe. Its r2pm package manager searches for, installs, updates, and uninstalls plugins and tools; listed plugins include r2ghidra, r2frida, r2yara, and r2pipe. The project identifies iaito, a Qt graphical interface, as its official GUI. Installation options include the Git repository, released binaries, Nix packaging, and source builds. Most of radare2 is licensed under LGPLv3, while dependencies and plugins may have different licenses. It supports operating systems including Windows, Linux, macOS, iOS, Android, BSD, and others, alongside a broad range of architectures.