Mizan vs Nova Defender

Nova Defender is a free, open-source security addon for Garry's Mod, under the GPL-3.0 licence. It is much more than an anti-cheat: it guards net messages, blocks exploits and server crashers, catches ban evasion, checks for VPNs, and gives staff tools to inspect a player. Mizan is an anti-cheat and a ban registry: it judges how players aim, move and time their commands, and reads hundreds of public ban lists.

This page is written by Mizan, so read it with that in mind. Every fact about Nova comes from its own README and source code, linked at the end. If something here is wrong or out of date, email contact@mizan.ac and we will correct it.

How each one catches cheats

Nova catches most cheats on the player's own PC. It sends each player an obfuscated Lua check that looks for the traces known cheats leave in the game: their global names, functions, files, modules, console variables and hooks, Lua run from strings, and signs of the check itself being tampered with (modules/anticheat/anticheatpayload.lua). It also flags autoclickers by their timing. Its server-side aimbot check watches how the view moves, and it is off by default: the README says it "will (at the moment) cause false positives in rare conditions".

Nova's README is open about the limit of this: "Currently only some simple cheats are detected. Since the source code of Nova Defender is open and visible, cheats can be easily modified to be undetected again." Detection of newer and paid cheats by name is a private extension, given to server owners on request.

Mizan judges behaviour on your server and never looks for a cheat's files. AI models score each fight by how the view moves against its target before, during and after the shot; algorithmic detectors test what a hand on a mouse can and can't do, and whether the numbers the game sends add up. A case opens only when two independent kinds of measurement agree, unless an exact check of the game's own numbers fails, and each detector alarms only at 10,000 to 1 odds against normal play.

The difference that matters: a check for a cheat's traces catches the cheats it knows, and a cheat changed to leave no trace walks past it. Behaviour is judged the same whether the cheat is public, private or written yesterday.

What each one covers

Nova's repository has a fake lag module, but its code is commented out (modules/exploit/fakelag.lua).

What Nova does on your server

Nova is open source, so you can read all of it. These are the parts a server owner should know about, each with the file it is in:

• It inspects players' games. Staff can run Lua on a player's game, browse and download files from their Garry's Mod folder, and take a screenshot of their screen (modules/admin/inspection.lua, modules/networking/screenshot.lua). A screenshot is saved before every ban by default.
• It screens every net message. It replaces net.Incoming, so every net message a player sends passes its checks for spam, unknown messages and known backdoors before the addon it was meant for (modules/networking/netmessages.lua).
• What leaves your server. Only what you turn on: with a key you add, players' IP addresses go to IPQualityScore or AbuseIPDB for the VPN check, and with a Steam Web API key, Steam is asked about a player's friends, games and bans for ban-evasion clues. Detections go to your Discord if you set a webhook.

Where Nova is ahead

• Free and open source. Nova costs nothing, and its GPL-3.0 code is on GitHub for anyone to read, change and run.
• Everything stays on your server. It needs no outside service to detect a cheat; nothing leaves your server unless you turn on the VPN or Steam checks.
• Server security beyond cheats. Net message protection, exploit and backdoor checks, ban-evasion detection by fingerprint and device cookie, VPN blocking, lockdown and maintenance modes, and password-guessing protection.
• No binary module. It is plain Lua, so it runs on hosts that don't allow binary modules.

Where Mizan is ahead

• Behaviour, not signatures. Aim, movement and network and timing cheats are judged by what they do on your server, so a private or freshly changed cheat meets the same checks.
• Coverage. Backtrack, engine prediction, fake lag, fake latency, warp, sequence freezing, anti-aim and fake duck, none of which Nova says it detects.
• Nothing on the player's PC to defeat. Nova's checks run on the cheater's own computer, in code they can read; Mizan's judgement runs on its own service.
• Fog of war. Your server stops sending a player the positions of enemies they can't see, so an ESP has nothing to draw.
• Bans beyond your server. Mizan reads hundreds of public ban lists, so a player banned on other communities' servers is known when they join. Nova's ban evasion works on its own bans.
• A published evidence rule, and every false flag we've found listed with its fix.

Both send detections to Discord and let staff decide before anyone is banned. Mizan bans through your admin mod; Nova keeps its own ban list beside it.

Which one fits your server

Choose Nova Defender if you want free, open-source protection against exploits, crashers, backdoors and ban evasion, with everything kept on your own server. Its anti-cheat catches simple, known cheats.

Choose Mizan if cheaters are the problem: it judges aim, movement and timing on your server, keeps wallhacks from drawing players behind walls, and brings the public ban lists with it.

They do different jobs, and they can run side by side: Nova for server security, Mizan for cheating.

The full comparison puts Mizan and Nova beside Chronon Labs, LSAC and SwiftAC.

Sources

• Nova Defender: GitHub repository and README, read at its latest commit of 21 May 2026, on 4 November 2026.
• Mizan: anti-cheat, comparison and false flags.