- SalHack is free and MIT-licensed, but frozen on MC 1.12.2 with no maintainer since 2020.
- Opal is $8.99, actively maintained in 2026, and built for MC 26.2.
- SalHack's roughly 120 modules chase 2b2t-style anarchy and crystal PvP. Opal's 70 modules chase BedWars/SkyWars-style minigame combat plus a quieter ghost set.
- They barely compete for the same player: pick based on which Minecraft version and playstyle you actually run.
At a glance
| Feature | Opal | SalHack |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $8.99 | Free |
| Source | Closed-source | Open source (MIT) |
| Features | 70 (combat, movement, visual, world, utility) | ~120 (combat, exploit, movement, render, world) |
| Tuned for | BedWars/SkyWars-style minigame combat | 2b2t-style anarchy and crystal PvP |
| Quiet (ghost) set | No dedicated stealth set | |
| Setup | Launcher, login, play | Clone and build the Forge/Mixin source yourself |
| Updates and support | Actively maintained in 2026 | Abandoned since 2020, no maintainer |
| Minecraft version | MC 26.2 | MC 1.12.2 |
Free and abandoned vs $8.99 and maintained
SalHack costs nothing, and that is not a sales pitch, it is just the situation: ionar open-sourced the whole thing under MIT around 2020 after leaving the project, and nobody has picked up maintenance since. What you download is a frozen snapshot of a codebase, not a supported product. That is a perfectly legitimate choice if you know that is the deal.
Opal costs $8.99 and is actively developed in 2026. That price buys ongoing updates, a launcher that logs you in and gets you playing, and an actual team behind it, not just a repo you have to compile yourself before you can log in.
MC 1.12.2 vs MC 26.2: one client stalled, the other did not
SalHack's build is pinned to Mixin 0.7.11, with the project's own build warning against updating it. That single decision locked the client to MC 1.12.2 with no forward path, ever. If you are not already playing that version, none of this is a choice you get to make.
Opal runs on MC 26.2, the current release, via Fabric. If you play modern Minecraft, this comparison is mostly academic: SalHack is not in the running, it is a museum piece, a good one, but still one that stopped moving six years ago.
Anarchy and exploits vs minigame combat and a ghost set
SalHack's roughly 120 modules lean hard into the 2b2t anarchy meta: CrystalAura and Surround for crystal PvP, NewChunks and StashFinder for hunting down bases, and server-exploit modules like Auto32k and PortalGodMode built around 1.12.2-era packet handling. Its own documentation is upfront that there is no real server-side anticheat in scope on the servers it targets, so subtlety was never part of the design brief.
Opal's 70 modules split differently: a blatant set tuned for BedWars/SkyWars-style minigame combat, and a quieter ghost set built to hold up on servers that actually run anticheat, since most minigame servers do. Different problem, different toolkit, built for a different Tuesday night.
Open source you can read vs a closed, finished product
SalHack ships full MIT source, including a README that names exactly where its code came from: KAMI Blue's base API, Seppuku's modules, Schematica for schematics. That transparency is genuinely useful if you want to study a working 1.12.2 anarchy client or legally reuse pieces of it. Credit where it is due: plenty of free clients are not this honest about their own lineage.
Opal is closed-source. What you get instead is a finished, maintained product rather than a codebase to pick apart, which is roughly the trade you are making any time you pay for a thing instead of building it yourself.
None of this makes SalHack a real rival to Opal on a day-to-day basis. It is a free, abandoned, MIT reference client for a Minecraft version most players moved on from years ago, built for a completely different playstyle. Being free, open, and candid about where its code came from is a genuine point in its favor, and if you already play 1.12.2 anarchy servers, it remains a legitimate pick on its own terms.
When SalHack is the better call
Pros
- You already play 2b2t or similar anarchy servers on MC 1.12.2
- You want free crystal-PvP and base-finding tools, full stop
- You want to read or legally reuse MIT-licensed client source with documented lineage
- You are fine building from source yourself, with no updates since 2020
Cons
- No dedicated stealth set, because anarchy servers leave little anticheat to hide from
- No launcher and no support channel to fall back on when something breaks
- Locked to MC 1.12.2 with no forward path to current Minecraft
- You are compiling Forge/Mixin source before you have even logged in once
If you want a maintained client on the current Minecraft version, combat tuned for minigames out of the box, and $8.99 is not a barrier, that is Opal.
FAQ
No. ionar open-sourced it under MIT around 2020 after leaving the project, and it has had no active maintainer since.
No. Its Forge/Mixin toolchain is pinned to MC 1.12.2 and Mixin 0.7.11, with the build itself warning not to update, so there is no forward path to current Minecraft versions.
Yes. It is MIT-licensed and the full source is public on GitHub.
$8.99 lifetime. One payment, all features, no subscription.
Its own README admits some code was pasted in without full credit during development, though the release itself is openly MIT-licensed. Since it targets MC 1.12.2 anarchy servers rather than modern minigame play, it is not really a like-for-like comparison to a maintained, closed-source client like Opal.
Lifetime license, instant delivery, no subscription
Disclaimer
Independent comparison. SalHack is a trademark of its owners; its use here is nominative and implies no affiliation or endorsement. Competitor details are accurate to the best of our knowledge as of 2026 and may contain errors.
