The 8 Best DDoS Attack Tools (Free DDoS Tool of The Year 2026)

The list of the Best free DDoS Attack Tools in the market:

Distributed Denial of Service Attack is an attack that is made on a website or a server to lower the performance intentionally.

Multiple computers are used for this. These multiple computers attack the targeted website or server with the DoS attack. As this attack is performed through a distributed network, it is called a Distributed Denial of Service attack.

In simple terms, multiple computers send fake requests to the target in larger quantities. The target is flooded with such requests, thereby the resources become unavailable to legitimate requests or users.

Software for DDoS Attack: Top-Trending

Purpose of DDoS Attack

Generally, the purpose of a DDoS attack is to crash the website.

The duration for which the DDoS attack will last depends on the fact that the attack is on the network layer or application layer. Network layer attack lasts for a maximum of 48 to 49 hours. Application layer attack lasts for a maximum of 60 to 70 days.

DDoS or any other similar kind of attack is illegal as per the Computer Misuse Act 1990. As it is illegal, an attacker can get the punishment of imprisonment.

There are 3 types of DDoS Attacks:

1. Volume-based attacks,
2. Protocol attacks, and
3. Application layer attacks.

The following are the methods of doing DDoS attacks:

• UDP flood
• ICMP (Ping) flood
• SYN flood
• Ping of Death
• Slowloris
• NTP Amplification
• HTTP flood

Most Popular Top DDoS Attack Tools

Given below is a list of the most popular DDoS tools that are available in the market.

Comparison of Top DDoS Tools

Let’s Explore!!

#1) HULK

HULK stands for HTTP Unbearable Load King. It is a DoS attack tool for the web server. It is created for research purposes.

Features:

• It can bypass the cache engine.
• It can generate unique and obscure traffic.
• It generates a great volume of traffic at the web server.

Verdict: It may fail in hiding the identity. Traffic coming through HULK can be blocked.

Website: https://github.com/grafov/hulk

#2) Tor’s Hammer

This tool is created for testing purposes. It is for slow post-attack.

Features:

• If you run it through the Tor network then you will remain unidentified.
• To run it through Tor, use 127.0.0.1:9050.
• With this tool, the attack can be made on Apache and IIS servers.

Verdict: Running the tool through the Tor network will have an added advantage as it hides your identity.

Website: https://sourceforge.net/projects/torshammer/

Further Reading => Top-Rated DDoS Attack Maps for Live Threats

#3) Slowloris

Slowloris tool is used to make a DDoS attack. It is used to shut the server down.

Features:

• It sends authorized HTTP traffic to the server.
• It doesn’t affect other services and ports on the target network.
• This attack tries to keep the maximum connection engaged with those that are open.
• It achieves this by sending a partial request.
• It tries to hold the connections as long as possible.
• As the server keeps the false connection open, this will overflow the connection pool and will deny the request to the true connections.

Verdict: As it attacks at a slow rate, traffic can be easily detected as abnormal and can be blocked.

Website: https://github.com/gkbrk/slowloris

#4) LOIC

LOIC stands for Low Orbit Ion Cannon. It is a free and popular tool that is available for the DDoS attack.

Features:

• It is easy to use.
• It sends UDP, TCP, and HTTP requests to the server.
• It can do the attack based on the URL or IP address of the server.
• Within seconds, the website will be down and it will stop responding to the actual requests.
• It will NOT HIDE your IP address. Even using the proxy server will not work. Because in that case, it will make the proxy server a target.

Verdict: HIVEMIND mode will allow you to control remote LOIC systems. With the help of this, you can control the other computers in the Zombie network.

Website: https://sourceforge.net/projects/loic/

#5) Xoic

It is a DDoS attacking tool. With the help of this tool, the attack can be made on small websites.

Features:

• It is easy to use.
• It provides three modes to attack.
  • Testing mode.
  • Normal DoS attack mode.
  • DoS attack with TCP or HTTP or UDP or ICMP message.

Verdict: Attacks made using XOIC can be easily detected and blocked.

Website: https://appnee.com/xoic/

#6) DDOSIM

DDOSIM stands for DDoS Simulator. This tool is for simulating a real DDoS attack. It can attack on the website as well as on the network.

Features:

• It attacks the server by reproducing many Zombie hosts.
• These hosts create a complete TCP connection with the server.
• It can do HTTP DDoS attacks using valid requests.
• It can doa DDoS attack using invalid requests.
• It can attack the application layer.

Verdict: This tool works on Linux systems. It can attack with valid and invalid requests.

#7) RUDY

RUDY stands for R-U-Dead-Yet. This tool makes the attack using a long-form field submission through the POST method.

Features:

• Interactive console menu.
• You can select the forms from the URL for the POST-based DDoS attack.
• It identifies the form fields for data submission. Then injects the long content length data to this form, at a very slow rate.

Verdict: It works at a very slow rate, hence it is time-consuming. Because of the slow rate, it can be detected as abnormal and can get blocked.

#8) PyLoris

This tool is created for testing. To make a DoS attack on the server, this tool uses SOCKS proxies and SSL connections.

Features:

• The attack can be made on HTTP, FTP, SMTP, IMAP, and Telnet.
• It has an easy-to-use GUI.
• It directly makes a service attack.

Verdict: It has Python dependency and installation and can be difficult. It can make attacks on various protocols.

#9) SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)

SolarWinds provides a Security Event Manager that is effective mitigation and prevention software to stop the DDoS Attack. It will monitor the event logs from a wide range of sources for detecting and preventing DDoS activities.

SEM will identify interactions with potential command and control servers by taking advantage of community-sourced lists of known bad actors. For this, it consolidates, normalizes, and reviews logs from various sources like IDS/IPs, firewalls, servers, etc.

Features:

• SEM has features of automated responses for sending alerts, blocking an IP, or shutting down an account.
• The tool will allow you to configure the options by using checkboxes.
• It keeps the logs and events in an encrypted and compressed format and records them in an unalterable read-only format.
• This method of maintaining logs and events will make SEM a single source of truth for post-breach investigations and DDoS mitigation.
• SEM will allow you to customize filters according to specific timeframes, accounts/IPs, or combinations of parameters.

Verdict: The method SEM follows to maintain logs and events will make it a single source of truth for post-breach investigations and DDoS mitigation.

#10) ManageEngine Log360

Best for Detecting and Combatting Potential Threats.

ManageEngine Log360 is a comprehensive SIEM solution that allows you to stay one step ahead of threats like DDoS attacks. The platform can help detect shadow apps in your network and take command over sensitive data. The platform also gives you complete visibility into your network.

Thanks to Log360’s powerful correlation engine, you get alerted to the existence of a threat in real time. As such, the platform is ideal for facilitating an efficient incident response process. It can quickly identify external threats by leveraging a global intelligent threat database.

Features:

• Integrated DLP and CASB
• Data Visualization
• Real-Time Monitoring
• File Integrity Monitoring
• Compliance Reporting

Verdict: With ManageEngine Log360, you get more than just a typical DDoS protection tool. This is a platform you can rely on to protect your network from all sorts of internal and external threats in real-time.

#11) Raksmart

Best for blocking all types of DDoS attacks.

Raksmart users benefit from having data centers all over the world. This means low geographical redundancy, perfect delay optimization, and ideal DDoS protection. Its DDoS centers are located strategically across the globe and feature 1TBps + IP backbone capacity. 

It can detect and cleanse all types of attacks ranging from layer 3 to layer 7. The tool is further aided in its capabilities by an intelligent DDoS migration algorithm that ensures all your applications remain protected from DDoS attacks of all sorts 24/7.

Features:

• 24/7 NoC/SoC operation
• 1TBps+ IP backbone capacity
• Remote DDoS mitigation
• Worldwide located DDoS cleansing centers

Verdict: From layer 3 attacks to the hard-to-detect layer 7 counterparts, Raksmart is effective enough in protecting your system and its applications from all types of DDoS attacks 24/7.

Additional Tools

#12) OWASP DOS HTTP POST: OWASP stands for Open Web Application Security Project. This tool is created for testing against the application layer attacks. It can also test the performance. This tool can decide the capacity of the server.

#13) Thc-ssl-dos: This attack uses the SSL exhaustion method. It makes the server down by exhausting all the SSL connections. It can work using a single machine.

#14) GoldenEye: This tool is also used to attack the server. It is used for performing security testing. It is specially made for testing purposes.

#15) Hping: It makes the DDoS attack by sending TCP/IP, UDP, ICMP, and SYN packets. It displays the replies similar to Ping program. This tool is created for testing purposes. It is used for testing firewall rules.

Conclusion

The list of tools mentioned in this article is the most popular ones for making a DDoS attack. These tools can be great resources for performance and security testing.

To conclude, HULK will be a good tool for research purposes. LOIC and XOIC are easy to use. LOIC can be used for testing. RUDY and PyLoris are also created especially for testing purposes.

Recommended reading => The best DDoS Protection Tools and Services

Hope this informative article on DDoS Attack tools was of immense help to you!!