Side by side

Boomerang vs CFR

Both stand on reverse engineering tools. Which one you can start free with, which one lets you read the code, and what each costs once you pay.

Boomerang

Free plan LinuxMacWindows

Choose Boomerang if you need a free decompiler for its supported native architectures and formats, with C output and command-line or GUI use. Look elsewhere if you need bytecode decompilation, original source reconstruction, or reliable results on large binaries.

Visit Boomerang

CFR

Free plan APILinuxMac+2

CFR offers command-line decompilation for Java class files and JARs, with configurable output and an API. Keep in mind that non-Java JVM input becomes Java output and that some cases may not decompile well.

Visit CFR

The facts

	Boomerang	CFR
Free plan	Yes	Yes
Open source	Not published	Not published
Runs on	Linux, Mac, Windows	API, Linux, Mac, Self-hosted, Windows
Lowest paid plan	Free or on request	Free or on request
Plans published	1	1
Maker	Not published	Not published
Website	github.com	benf.org
On reverse engineering tools	#12 of 73	#8 of 73

Boomerang: what it does well

Free, open-source software under a BSD license.
Supports x86 (IA-32 only), PPC, and ST20.
Accepts ELF, PE, DOS MZ, DOS/4GW LE, and Mach-O.
Offers both command-line and GUI interfaces.
Provides unit tests and regression tests.

What to know first

32-bit systems are unsupported for builds.
Decompilation does not recreate the original source file.
Windows does not support building the regression test suite.
The maker warns large-binary decompilation may disappoint.

CFR: what it does well

Handles class files, classpaths, and JARs
Output can be directed to a chosen directory
Supports command-line options and an options file
Free, with an API available as of version 0.135

What to know first

Does not decompile native code
Other JVM languages are output as Java
Some edge cases can produce poor results

Alternatives to Boomerang Alternatives to CFR The whole list