# PCRE2 vs RE2

| Attribute | PCRE2 | RE2 |
|---|---|---|
| **Vioscale score** | 44.4 (27% (low)) | 48.8 (26% (low)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | 33 | 0 |
| adoption.dependent_repos | 129 | - |
| adoption.github_stars | 1,341 | 9,785 |
| deployment.options | `{"self_hosted":true}` | `{"self_hosted":true}` |
| description.long | A free regular expression matching library that implements Perl 5 syntax with extensive Unicode and character encoding support. It offers both traditional backtracking and JIT-compiled matching engines, available through native and POSIX-compatible APIs. | RE2 is a C++ library providing a thread-safe alternative to traditional backtracking regex engines like PCRE and Perl, prioritizing predictable performance and security over feature completeness. |
| integrations.count | 2 | 1 |
| integrations.list | `[{"name":"Exim"},{"name":"Nginx"}]` | `[{"name":"GitHub"}]` |
| language.primary | C | C++ |
| license.spdx | - | BSD-3-Clause |
| market.availability | - | `{"hqCountry":"US","primaryMarkets":[],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` |
| platform.support | `{"cli":true,"mac":true,"linux":true,"windows":true}` | `{"cli":true,"mac":true,"linux":true,"windows":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"open_source","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://www.pcre.org/","retrievedAt":"2026-08-19T21:07:09.586Z"}` | `{"type":"open_source","summary":"Open source, free","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://github.com/pricing","retrievedAt":"2026-08-19T21:07:02.645Z"}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | yes |
| pricing.model | commercial | commercial |
| pricing.price_level | free | free |
| pricing.transparent | - | yes |
| release.cadence_days | 50 | 30 |
| release.history | `[{"url":"https://github.com/PCRE2Project/pcre2/releases/tag/pcre2-10.48-RC1","date":"2026-08-25T14:44:44Z","type":"prerelease","version":"pcre2-10.48-RC1"},{"url":"https://github.com/PCRE2Project/pcre2/releases/tag/pcre2-10.47","date":"2025-10-21T09:52:48Z","type":"stable","version":"pcre2-10.47"},{"url":"https://github.com/PCRE2Project/pcre2/releases/tag/pcre2-10.46","date":"2025-08-27T16:45:55Z","type":"stable","version":"pcre2-10.46"},{"url":"https://github.com/PCRE2Project/pcre2/releases/tag/pcre2-10.45","date":"2025-02-05T09:09:01Z","type":"stable","version":"pcre2-10.45"},{"url":"https://github.com/PCRE2Project/pcre2/releases/tag/pcre2-10.45-RC1","date":"2024-12-27T07:53:11Z","type":"prerelease","version":"pcre2-10.45-RC1"},{"url":"https://github.com/PCRE2Project/pcre2/releases/tag/pcre2-10.44","date":"2024-06-07T14:13:37Z","type":"stable","version":"pcre2-10.44"},{"url":"https://github.com/PCRE2Project/pcre2/releases/tag/pcre2-10.43","date":"2024-02-16T17:15:57Z","type":"stable","version":"pcre2-10.43"},{"url":"https://github.com/PCRE2Project/pcre2/releases/tag/pcre2-10.43-RC1","date":"2023-12-28T16:41:04Z","type":"prerelease","version":"pcre2-10.43-RC1"},{"url":"https://github.com/PCRE2Project/pcre2/releases/tag/pcre2-10.42","date":"2022-12-12T17:24:44Z","type":"stable","version":"pcre2-10.42"},{"url":"https://github.com/PCRE2Project/pcre2/releases/tag/pcre2-10.41","date":"2022-12-06T17:10:13Z","type":"stable","version":"pcre2-10.41"},{"url":"https://github.com/PCRE2Project/pcre2/releases/tag/pcre2-10.40","date":"2022-04-15T16:05:35Z","type":"stable","version":"pcre2-10.40"},{"url":"https://github.com/PCRE2Project/pcre2/releases/tag/pcre2-10.39","date":"2021-10-29T16:16:41Z","type":"stable","version":"pcre2-10.39"},{"url":"https://github.com/PCRE2Project/pcre2/releases/tag/pcre2-10.38","date":"2021-10-01T15:53:58Z","type":"stable","version":"pcre2-10.38"},{"url":"https://github.com/PCRE2Project/pcre2/releases/tag/pcre2-10.38-RC1","date":"2021-08-31T16:30:14Z","type":"prerelease","version":"pcre2-10.38-RC1"},{"url":"https://github.com/PCRE2Project/pcre2/releases/tag/pcre2-10.37","date":"2021-08-22T10:52:04Z","type":"stable","version":"pcre2-10.37"},{"url":"https://github.com/PCRE2Project/pcre2/releases/tag/pcre2-10.36","date":"2022-01-24T14:14:28Z","type":"stable","version":"pcre2-10.36"},{"url":"https://github.com/PCRE2Project/pcre2/releases/tag/pcre2-10.35","date":"2022-01-24T14:17:46Z","type":"stable","version":"pcre2-10.35"},{"url":"https://github.com/PCRE2Project/pcre2/releases/tag/pcre2-10.34","date":"2022-01-25T16:23:42Z","type":"stable","version":"pcre2-10.34"},{"url":"https://github.com/PCRE2Project/pcre2/releases/tag/pcre2-10.33","date":"2022-01-25T16:25:27Z","type":"stable","version":"pcre2-10.33"},{"url":"https://github.com/PCRE2Project/pcre2/releases/tag/pcre2-10.32","date":"2022-01-25T16:26:41Z","type":"stable","version":"pcre2-10.32"}]` | `[{"url":"https://github.com/google/re2/releases/tag/2025-11-05","date":"2025-11-05T14:47:56Z","type":"stable","version":"2025-11-05"},{"url":"https://github.com/google/re2/releases/tag/2025-08-12","date":"2025-08-12T21:55:43Z","type":"stable","version":"2025-08-12"},{"url":"https://github.com/google/re2/releases/tag/2025-08-05","date":"2025-08-05T19:17:59Z","type":"stable","version":"2025-08-05"},{"url":"https://github.com/google/re2/releases/tag/2025-07-22","date":"2025-07-22T15:33:14Z","type":"stable","version":"2025-07-22"},{"url":"https://github.com/google/re2/releases/tag/2025-07-17","date":"2025-07-17T21:38:46Z","type":"stable","version":"2025-07-17"},{"url":"https://github.com/google/re2/releases/tag/2024-07-02","date":"2024-07-01T14:01:30Z","type":"stable","version":"2024-07-02"},{"url":"https://github.com/google/re2/releases/tag/2024-07-01","date":"2024-06-30T14:08:55Z","type":"stable","version":"2024-07-01"},{"url":"https://github.com/google/re2/releases/tag/2024-06-01","date":"2024-05-31T14:06:16Z","type":"stable","version":"2024-06-01"},{"url":"https://github.com/google/re2/releases/tag/2024-05-01","date":"2024-04-30T14:20:08Z","type":"stable","version":"2024-05-01"},{"url":"https://github.com/google/re2/releases/tag/2024-04-01","date":"2024-03-31T13:09:37Z","type":"stable","version":"2024-04-01"},{"url":"https://github.com/google/re2/releases/tag/2024-03-01","date":"2024-02-29T13:08:49Z","type":"stable","version":"2024-03-01"},{"url":"https://github.com/google/re2/releases/tag/2024-02-01","date":"2024-01-31T13:10:12Z","type":"stable","version":"2024-02-01"},{"url":"https://github.com/google/re2/releases/tag/2023-11-01","date":"2023-10-31T15:21:01Z","type":"stable","version":"2023-11-01"},{"url":"https://github.com/google/re2/releases/tag/2023-09-01","date":"2023-08-31T14:44:43Z","type":"stable","version":"2023-09-01"},{"url":"https://github.com/google/re2/releases/tag/2023-08-01","date":"2023-07-31T14:42:03Z","type":"stable","version":"2023-08-01"},{"url":"https://github.com/google/re2/releases/tag/2023-07-01","date":"2023-06-30T17:59:47Z","type":"stable","version":"2023-07-01"},{"url":"https://github.com/google/re2/releases/tag/2023-06-02","date":"2023-06-01T14:08:47Z","type":"stable","version":"2023-06-02"},{"url":"https://github.com/google/re2/releases/tag/2023-06-01","date":"2023-05-31T15:26:12Z","type":"stable","version":"2023-06-01"},{"url":"https://github.com/google/re2/releases/tag/2023-03-01","date":"2023-03-01T07:36:46Z","type":"stable","version":"2023-03-01"},{"url":"https://github.com/google/re2/releases/tag/2023-02-01","date":"2023-02-01T07:45:12Z","type":"stable","version":"2023-02-01"}]` |
| security.disclosure_policy | - | yes |
| security.scorecard | - | 6.3 |
| security.vulnerabilities | `{"count":0,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=conda&package_name=pcre2&per_page=100","last_12m":0,"max_severity":null}` | `{"count":0,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=pypi&package_name=google-re2&per_page=100","last_12m":0,"max_severity":null}` |

## Capabilities (Regex Tools)

| Capability | PCRE2 | RE2 |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Capabilities** |  |  |
| Redos resistant | - | - |
| Lookaround support | - | - |
| Backreferences | - | - |
| Unicode property escapes | - | - |
| Named captures | - | - |
| Multi pattern matching | - | - |
| Interface type | - | - |
| Visualization | - | - |
| Code generation | - | - |

*Source: Vioscale. Generated 2026-09-01T15:04:45.906Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*