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John the Ripper vs hashcat: catalog facts
John the Ripper	hashcat
Best for: Auditing passwords, especially in hash formats that other tools do not support	Best for: Auditing how quickly the password hashes in your own systems can be recovered
Free Free and open source under the GPL, with some components under a relaxed variant.	Free Free and open source under the MIT licence.
Windows, macOS, Linux, Command line	Windows, macOS, Linux, Command line
The jumbo build supports hundreds of hash and cipher types, including many obscure ones Runs on a very wide range of platforms including old and unusual ones All 4 strengths for John the Ripper The jumbo build supports hundreds of hash and cipher types, including many obscure ones Runs on a very wide range of platforms including old and unusual ones Strong rule-based and incremental attack modes, not just dictionaries Packaged by every major distribution plus Homebrew, Flathub and Snap	Over 590 hash modes and ten attack modes, including masks and rule-based mutation CUDA, HIP, Metal and OpenCL backends, with mixed device types in one system All 4 strengths for hashcat Over 590 hash modes and ten attack modes, including masks and rule-based mutation CUDA, HIP, Metal and OpenCL backends, with mixed device types in one system Named sessions with restore after interruption, and a thermal watchdog Keyboard layout mapping for disk encryption passwords typed on a non-US keyboard
The project states jumbo has low quality requirements and that bugs are to be expected GPU support is weaker than hashcat's for the common hash types All 4 limitations for John the Ripper The project states jumbo has low quality requirements and that bugs are to be expected GPU support is weaker than hashcat's for the common hash types Command line only, with a substantial learning curve Only legitimate against systems you are authorised to test	Only legitimate against hashes you are authorised to test Needs a capable GPU to be useful; CPU-only cracking is slow All 4 limitations for hashcat Only legitimate against hashes you are authorised to test Needs a capable GPU to be useful; CPU-only cracking is slow Command line with a large option surface and a real learning curve Driver and backend setup is frequently the hardest part
Downloadable app	Downloadable app
Open source	Open source
License: GPL-2.0	License: MIT
No account needed	No account needed
Offline features available	Offline features available
Official website Full listing and sources Sources for John the Ripper github.com/openwall/john Catalog checked September 21, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Sources for hashcat github.com/hashcat/hashcat Catalog checked September 21, 2026

“Not stated” means we have not confirmed it. Features can vary by device and plan.