Dradis vs SysReptor

SysReptor has 2,400+ GitHub stars and gets recommended in every OSCP prep thread. If you run a consultancy and found it in a GitHub search, here is what the tool is built for, and where the workflow starts to pull when you add a second tester, a second scanner, or a client who wants something other than a PDF.

This page compares both tools honestly: free tier to free tier, paid tier to paid tier.

Key Takeaways

  • SysReptor is a well-built tool for individual practitioners doing certification work (OSCP, CPTS, CDSA) where PDF-only output is the correct format and team knowledge accumulation is not a factor.
  • SysReptor outputs PDF only at every tier. Dradis CE outputs PDF, CSV, HTML, and JSON. Dradis Pro adds fully custom Word and Excel, the formats consultancy clients request.
  • SysReptor's "Community License 1.1" is source-available, not open source: it prohibits distribution, modification, and commercial use beyond internal use. Dradis CE is GPLv2, which means inspect, fork, and run forever.
  • SysReptor integrates with 7 scanners (Burp, Nessus, Qualys, OpenVAS, Nmap, SSLyze, ZAP). Dradis integrates with 47 security tools including Nexpose, Metasploit, Acunetix, Nikto, and Checkmarx.
  • SysReptor has no equivalent to Dradis's Issue Library, a governed, revision-tracked finding database with Rules Engine integration that substitutes your team's approved write-ups when scanners detect matching findings.
  • Both tools offer self-hosted deployment. The difference is what "self-hosted" means once you factor in licensing restrictions, output format constraints, and whether your accumulated knowledge is portable.

Side-by-side summary

  Dradis CE (free) SysReptor Community (free) Dradis Pro (paid) SysReptor PRO (paid)
License GPLv2 (inspect, fork, run forever) Community License 1.1 (source-available; no forking, no distribution, no modification) Commercial Commercial
Output formats PDF, CSV, HTML, JSON PDF only Word, Excel, PDF, CSV, HTML, JSON PDF only
Users Unlimited Up to 3 As licensed As licensed
Projects 1 at a time Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited
Scanner integrations 47 tools 7 (Burp, Nessus, Qualys, OpenVAS, Nmap, SSLyze, ZAP) 47 tools 7
Finding templates Yes Yes Yes + Issue Library with states, revision history, tags, Rules Engine Yes
AI Full Echo (local Ollama, no external API, scoped permissions) AI Agent, Ask (read-only) mode Echo Context Engine (project-aware, local Ollama, scoped permissions) AI Agent, full (read + write) mode
SSO No No Yes * Yes (Keycloak, Entra ID, Google, ADFS)
Spell check No No No Yes (LanguageTool, self-hosted)
Version history Yes No Yes Yes
User permissions Basic Basic Granular Granular
Quality Assurance Yes No Quality assurance + review workflows No
Methodology tracking OWASP, PTES, HIPAA, custom; Kanban + export No Project and per-asset No
Client portal No No Gateway (self-hosted, clients view findings live) No
Rules Engine No No Automated dedup, merge, substitution No
Business intelligence No No Turn engagements into measurable intelligence No
Pricing (as of May 2026) Free Free From $79/user/month From $65/user/month

* SSO (SAML/LDAP) is available in the Enterprise plan.

Tier 1, free: Dradis CE vs SysReptor Community

Both tools are free and self-hosted at this tier. Both install via Docker. Both let you write findings and generate reports. The differences are structural.

There's a 3 user limit in SysReptor Community. Unlimited users in Dradis CE.

Output formats

SysReptor renders HTML/Markdown templates to PDF. That is its only output format at every tier, Community and PRO.

Dradis CE outputs PDF, CSV, HTML, and JSON. If your client asks for a CSV vulnerability appendix or your internal team needs JSON for downstream tooling, Dradis CE handles it. SysReptor does not.

Word and Excel, the formats most consultancy clients request, are Dradis Pro features. CE does not have them either. But at the free tier, Dradis CE gives you four output options where SysReptor gives you one.

Licensing: open source vs source-available

Dradis CE is licensed under GPLv2. You can inspect every line of code, fork the project, modify it, distribute your modifications, and run it in perpetuity. If Security Roots disappeared tomorrow, the codebase and your data are yours.

SysReptor uses "SysReptor Community License 1.1", a custom source-available license. You can read the code and run it for internal business use. You cannot fork it, cannot distribute it, cannot create derivative works, and cannot use it commercially beyond internal use without permission from Syslifters. If you assumed MIT or similar from the GitHub star count, read the license file before building a workflow around it.

For regulated buyers who require code auditability and perpetual use rights, this distinction is material. For solo practitioners, it may not matter today, but it constrains what you can do with the tool if your needs change.

AI at the free tier

Dradis CE ships with Echo since version 5.0. Echo runs via Ollama on your own hardware with scoped permissions. No findings reach an external API, including ours.

SysReptor Community includes AI Agent in Ask (read-only) mode. The AI can answer questions about your findings but cannot create or modify them. Write access requires SysReptor PRO.

The CE trade-off

Dradis CE is limited to one project at a time. If you need multiple concurrent projects, you need Dradis Pro. SysReptor Community has no project limit (although it has a 3-user limit). For solo practitioners juggling overlapping engagements, this is a real CE constraint.

See how Dradis handles your reporting workflow, book a demo

Tier 2, paid: Dradis Assess vs SysReptor PRO

SysReptor PRO adds five features over Community: SSO (Keycloak, Entra ID, Google, ADFS), spell check (LanguageTool, self-hosted container), version history on projects/findings/notes/designs, granular user permissions, and AI Agent full mode (write access). That is the complete list.

Dradis Assess, our entry-level paid plan, adds everything below over CE. Partial list; see the full feature comparison on the editions page:

  1. Issue Library: 60+ curated entries, revision history, per-entry states, custom tags, team governance
  2. Rules Engine: automated deduplication, merge, and substitution of scanner boilerplate with your team's approved write-ups
  3. Quality Assurance: inline review, sign-off workflows, catch mistakes before they reach the report
  4. Project Scheduler: manage all pentests from one dashboard
  5. Gateway: self-hosted client portal where clients log in, view findings, and track remediation in real time
  6. Business Intelligence: turn client engagements into measurable intelligence
  7. Contributor Questionnaires: simplify engagement kickoff
  8. Echo Context Engine: project-aware AI, fully local via Ollama, scoped permissions, no data leaves your server
  9. Dynamic content with Liquid
  10. Mappings Manager
  11. Risk calculators (CVSSv4, DREAD, MITRE ATT&CK, custom): details
  12. Methodologies (OWASP, PTES, OSCP, HIPAA, PCI, or build your own)
  13. 47+ tool connectors
  14. Universal CSV Importer
  15. Multiple concurrent projects (no ceiling)
  16. MFA with OTP
  17. Webhooks and additional REST API endpoints and Personal Access Tokens (PATs).
  18. Word, Excel, CSV, HTML, PDF, JSON output
  19. Email and live chat support + onboarding

SysReptor PRO adds polish to a tool designed for individual practitioners. Dradis Assess adds the infrastructure a consultancy needs to compound knowledge, enforce consistency, give clients real-time visibility, and scale from 3 testers to 30.

SSO: the honest gap

SysReptor PRO includes SSO (Keycloak, Entra ID, Google, ADFS). Dradis Assess does not. SSO (SAML/LDAP) is available in Dradis Enterprise, our plan for teams with compliance requirements that mandate centralised identity management. This does not change the overall comparison at the Assess tier, but it is a real gap for teams that need SSO at the lowest paid plan.

The output format ceiling

SysReptor outputs PDF at every tier. Community and PRO. No Word, no Excel, no CSV, no JSON.

For certification exam submissions (OSCP, CPTS, CDSA, HackTheBox) PDF is the correct format. SysReptor's PDF rendering engine is clean, and this is what the tool was built for.

For consultancy deliverables, the story changes. Clients request branded Word reports. Compliance teams need Excel vulnerability appendices they can sort, filter, and import into their own tooling. Project managers want CSV exports they can load into Jira or ServiceNow.

PDF-only means you deliver PDF regardless of what the client wants, or you rebuild the deliverable manually after export. Neither scales past a handful of engagements.

Dradis's reporting engine generates Word documents with native charts, severity-filtered sections, cross-reference links, and host-centric appendices from a single template. Excel exports preserve formulas and structured data. The format matches the client's expectation, not the tool's limitation.

Scanner integrations: 7 vs 47

SysReptor integrates with Burp Suite, Nessus, Qualys, OpenVAS, Nmap, SSLyze, and ZAP via its CLI tools (sysreptor Python package). These cover the most common web app and infrastructure scanners.

Dradis integrates with 47 security tools including Nexpose, Metasploit, Acunetix, Nikto, Checkmarx, Tenable.io, and dozens more. The Rules Engine can merge findings from multiple scanners, deduplicate, and replace scanner boilerplate with your team's approved descriptions from the Issue Library.

For a solo tester running Burp and Nmap, 7 integrations cover the workflow. For a 3-person team running Burp, Nessus, Qualys, Nexpose, and Metasploit across web app, infrastructure, and cloud assessments, 7 integrations means manual transcription for every tool SysReptor does not support.

Knowledge compounding: the structural gap

Both tools have finding templates at their free tiers. SysReptor's finding templates store reusable descriptions you pull into projects. Dradis CE has equivalent functionality.

The gap opens at the paid tier.

Dradis Pro replaces ad hoc templates with a governed Issue Library: 60+ curated entries with revision history, per-entry states, custom tags, and deep Rules Engine integration. When Nessus detects a finding that matches an Issue Library entry, Dradis substitutes the team's approved write-up. Same severity, same remediation language, same formatting, every time.

Project 50 benefits from everything the team learned in projects 1 through 49, because every refined finding description, every corrected severity rating, every improved remediation step is captured in the Issue Library and applied on the next engagement. Two testers produce identical output for the same finding, not because they agreed in a meeting, but because the system enforces it.

SysReptor has no equivalent at any tier. No governed finding database with revision history. No automated substitution from a canonical source. No Rules Engine. The finding templates work as a lookup table. They do not compound.

The audience SysReptor was built for

SysReptor's GitHub topics tell the story: oscp, cpts, cdsa, cape, chhb, hackthebox, offsec. These are offensive security certification identifiers. Reddit corroborates this: SysReptor appears in r/hackthebox, r/oscp, and r/offensive_security in the context of exam report writing, not client deliverable workflows. Multiple "passed CPTS" posts cite SysReptor as the tool used for the 100-page exam report.

SysReptor is designed for individual practitioners who need a polished PDF for a certification submission. PDF-only output is the right choice for that use case. Real-time collaborative editing works well for the solo-to-duo workflow. The CLI automation tools are useful for scripting project creation and finding push.

The question is whether a tool optimised for certification work also fits a 3-person consultancy delivering 15 client engagements a year, each with different output format requirements, a shared finding database that needs to compound across all 15, and clients who expect real-time visibility into assessment progress.

SysReptor Cloud: a note on data architecture

SysReptor offers a cloud-hosted option (SysReptor Cloud) where pentest findings live on Syslifters' Austrian-hosted infrastructure. Consider whether your client contracts, data handling clauses, or regulatory obligations (NIS2 Article 21, GDPR Article 28 DPA requirements) permit pentest findings (detailed technical vulnerabilities in client systems) to reside on a third-party vendor's cloud.

Dradis does not offer a cloud-hosted version. Every Dradis deployment is self-hosted: on-premises, private cloud, or air-gapped. Your findings never leave infrastructure you control. Data Sovereignty is one of our platform guarantees.

When SysReptor is the right choice

  • Certification exam reporting. If you are writing an OSCP, CPTS, or CDSA exam report, SysReptor is purpose-built for this. PDF is the correct format, the collaborative editing is smooth, and the tool gets out of your way. Dradis CE also works, but SysReptor has deeper community adoption for cert submissions.
  • Solo practitioner, PDF-only workflow. If your deliverable is always a PDF and you do not need Word, Excel, or CSV output, SysReptor handles the workflow at zero cost.
  • Already invested in the SysReptor ecosystem. If your team has built templates and workflows around SysReptor and the current constraints are not blocking you, switching has a real cost. Do not switch for theoretical benefits.

When you will outgrow SysReptor

  • Your client asks for a Word report - or multiple report formats. SysReptor outputs PDF only. The moment a client requests a branded Word deliverable, an Excel vulnerability appendix, or a CSV export for their ticketing system, you are rebuilding the output manually.
  • Your team grows past 1-2 people. Consistency across testers requires more than shared finding templates. It requires a governed Issue Library with revision history and a Rules Engine that enforces approved write-ups, features SysReptor does not have at any tier.
  • You run more than 7 scanners. SysReptor covers Burp, Nessus, Qualys, OpenVAS, Nmap, SSLyze, and ZAP. Every other scanner means manual transcription. For mixed scanner workflows, this compounds across every engagement.
  • You need to prove methodology compliance. SysReptor has no methodology tracking. If clients or auditors ask for evidence of OWASP or PTES coverage, that evidence does not come from SysReptor.
  • Your clients expect real-time visibility. SysReptor has no client portal. Findings are shared when you export the PDF. Dradis Gateway gives clients a self-hosted portal where they see findings as they emerge and track remediation live.
  • The license matters to your procurement team. SysReptor's source-available license prohibits forking, modification, and distribution. For regulated buyers or enterprise procurement requiring perpetual use rights and code auditability, this is a blocker. Dradis CE's GPLv2 has no such restrictions.

Practical next steps

  • If you are doing cert work: SysReptor handles OSCP/CPTS/CDSA exam reports well. Use it. If you later move into consulting and hit the output format or team feature ceiling, Dradis Community Edition is free and gives you a direct comparison.
  • If you are evaluating SysReptor for consultancy work: install both tools, run a test engagement with your actual scanner stack, and try exporting to the format your client expects. That test answers the comparison faster than any page can.
  • If your team has 3+ testers or multiple scanner tools: book a demo to see how the Issue Library, Rules Engine, and reporting engine handle a real multi-tester engagement.
  • If you are also evaluating PwnDoc: how Dradis compares to PwnDoc, covering scanner integrations, reporting engine depth, and the fork fragmentation question.

Frequently asked questions

Is SysReptor open source?

No. SysReptor's source code is publicly available on GitHub, but its license (SysReptor Community License 1.1) is not an open-source license by the OSI definition. It prohibits distribution, modification, and commercial use beyond internal business use. Dradis Community Edition uses GPLv2, which permits inspection, forking, modification, and distribution with no restrictions on commercial use.

Can SysReptor generate Word or Excel reports?

No. SysReptor outputs PDF only at both Community and PRO tiers. If your clients require Word deliverables, Excel vulnerability appendices, or CSV exports for downstream tooling, SysReptor cannot generate them. Dradis Pro generates Word documents with native charts, severity-filtered sections, and cross-reference links, plus Excel exports with formulas and structured data.

Does SysReptor have an Issue Library equivalent?

SysReptor has finding templates: reusable descriptions you pull into a project. Both Dradis CE and SysReptor Community offer this. What SysReptor does not have at any tier is a governed finding database with revision history, per-entry states, custom tags, and automated Rules Engine integration. Dradis Pro's Issue Library and Rules Engine substitute scanner boilerplate with your team's approved write-ups, enforcing consistency across testers without manual intervention.

How does AI compare between Dradis and SysReptor?

Both tools offer AI features that can run without external API calls. Dradis Echo runs via Ollama on your own hardware with scoped permissions from CE 5.0 onward. No findings reach an external API. SysReptor's AI Agent supports multiple LLM providers including self-hosted models. SysReptor Community tier provides read-only access, PRO tier adds write access. Dradis makes local-first AI the default experience at the free tier, not a paid add-on for write capabilities.

Is Dradis Community Edition free like SysReptor Community?

Yes. Dradis Community Edition is free, open-source (GPLv2), and self-hosted. It includes the full reporting engine, 47 scanner integrations, and Echo AI. The limitation is one project at a time. SysReptor Community allows unlimited projects but limited users, and outputs PDF only. It uses a source-available license that restricts what you can do with the code. Dradis Pro starts at $79/user/month (as of May 2026).

What scanners does SysReptor integrate with?

SysReptor integrates with 7 scanners via its CLI tools: Burp Suite, Nessus, Qualys, OpenVAS, Nmap, SSLyze, and ZAP. Dradis integrates with 47 security tools including Nexpose, Metasploit, Acunetix, Nikto, Checkmarx, and Tenable.io. For teams running scanner stacks beyond SysReptor's 7 supported tools, every additional scanner means manual finding transcription.

Your team runs more than cert work. See how Dradis handles multi-tester engagements with mixed scanner workflows and client-ready deliverables. Book a demo.