ILSpy vs Qiling Framework

ILSpy is free, open-source software for browsing and decompiling .NET assemblies on Windows, Linux, and macOS. Its Avalonia desktop interface converts assemblies to C#, including whole-project decompilation. Assemblies can come from disk, NuGet, running processes, or the Global Assembly Cache, although GAC support is limited to Windows. Search covers types, methods, and properties, with hyperlinks, bookmarks, base and derived type navigation, and an assembly metadata explorer. The application also includes BAML-to-XAML decompilation and support for ReadyToRun binaries for .NET Core. Related tooling includes Visual Studio 2022/2026 support, Visual Studio Code extensions, the ilspycmd dotnet tool, PowerShell cmdlets, and NuGet packages. Desktop plugins and a scripting API extend its use. ILSpy supports bytecode decompilation but not native-code decompilation. The project says it does not collect personally identifiable information, send user files to third-party services, or use application performance monitoring for telemetry. Release 11.1 is listed as the latest version, under the MIT License.

Qiling Framework is free software for emulating and instrumenting binaries for reverse engineering and security analysis. It runs machine code in an isolated environment and supports debugging across architectures and platforms. Listed architectures include x86, x86_64, ARM, ARM64, MIPS, and 8086; supported formats include PE, Mach-O, ELF, and COM. Hooks can observe instructions, basic blocks, memory access, exceptions, system calls, and I/O. APIs provide access to registers, memory, filesystems, operating systems, debugging, and execution-state saving and restoration. Qiling can also hot patch running code, including loaded libraries. Its IDA Pro plugin can emulate binaries in IDA, display live context, run scripts, save and load snapshots, and deobfuscate code. Qiling uses Unicorn for CPU emulation and adds operating-system awareness, executable loading, dynamic linking, and syscall and I/O handling. Installation options include pip, source, and Docker. It is licensed under GPL version 2 or a later version at the user's option. Some syscalls or operating-system APIs may not be implemented, and users may need to implement or map them.