The best reverse engineering tools, according to hackers
9 reverse engineering tools were recommended on Hacker News between November 2025 and November 2026. We rank them by how many separate people recommend each one, and 4 earn the Hacker Approved badge.
Top picks
The three most recommended reverse engineering tools with the badge. Each figure is 5 people. RecommendsCriticizes One comment
Works well with LLM and MCP workflows
Free, open-source reverse engineering suite that decompiles many processor architectures and can be automated; critics find the UI laggy and hard for newcomers to learn.
Much faster reverse engineering work
Gives AI coding assistants like Claude access to Ghidra's functions, letting them label and analyze binaries much faster. Critics say its 110-tool surface adds context noise.
Scriptable, strong typing and tooltips
People recommend it for fast, accurate analysis of unusual binaries, a strong debugger and heavy scripting support. The most common caveat is that it is expensive for hobbyists.
All 9 reverse engineering tools, ranked
Select a column heading to sort. Approval share is recommenders out of everyone who gave an opinion; the tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs. Months counts the months, out of 13, in which someone recommended it.
| Rank | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ghidra | 80 | 20 | 80% | 13 | — | Approved |
| 2 | GhidraMCP | 30 | 11 | 73% | 10 | — | Approved |
| 3 | IDA Pro | 25 | 7 | 78% | 9 | — | Approved |
| 4 | REA Reverse-Engineer Anything | 14 | 9 | 61% | 2 | — | — |
| 5 | Binary Ninja | 13 | 5 | 72% | 5 | — | Approved |
| 6 | Kampala | 7 | 4 | 64% | 1 | — | — |
| 7 | binwalk | 6 | 1 | 86% | 4 | — | — |
| Tied 8 | Frida | 5 | 0 | 100% | 4 | — | — |
| Tied 8 | IDA Pro MCP | 5 | 0 | 100% | 4 | — | — |
How we rank
Rank is the number of separate people who recommend a product in a Hacker News comment over the past year. Someone who praises the same reverse engineering tool in five threads counts once.
The badge goes to reverse engineering tools that at least 10 people recommend, with recommenders outnumbering critics at least 2 to 1, recommended in at least 4 of the 13 months.
Rankings are never for sale. We may earn a commission when you buy through our links. It never changes the order.