Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Shodan VS URLscan.io

Compare Shodan VS URLscan.io and see what are their differences

Shodan logo Shodan

Shodan is the world's first search engine for Internet-connected devices.

URLscan.io logo URLscan.io

urlscan.io is a free service to scan and analyse websites. When a URL is submitted to urlscan.io, an automated process will browse to the URL like a regular user and record the activity that this page navigation creates.
  • Shodan Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-03-16
  • URLscan.io Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-05-12

Shodan features and specs

  • Comprehensive Data Collection
    Shodan extensively scans the internet, collecting data from a wide range of devices and services, which provides users with a thorough overview of their network exposure.
  • Security Awareness
    It helps organizations identify and address security vulnerabilities by revealing exposed devices and services that might otherwise go unnoticed.
  • Automation Capabilities
    The platform offers an API that allows users to automate searches and integrate Shodan data into their own tools and workflows.
  • Detailed Search Filters
    Shodan provides advanced search filters that allow users to narrow down results based on specific criteria such as geographic location, device type, or operating system.
  • Real-Time Monitoring
    Users can set up real-time alerts to monitor for new exposures, ensuring timely response to potential threats.

Possible disadvantages of Shodan

  • Ethical and Legal Concerns
    Shodan can be used by malicious actors to identify and exploit vulnerabilities, raising ethical and legal questions about its use and data collection practices.
  • Complex UI
    The user interface can be overwhelming for beginners due to its complexity and the vast amount of data available, making it difficult to navigate without prior experience.
  • Subscription Costs
    While Shodan offers a free tier, accessing advanced features and extensive search capabilities requires a subscription, which might be costly for some users.
  • Potential for False Positives
    The data collected by Shodan might include false positives, where benign devices are flagged as vulnerabilities, thus requiring users to manually verify each finding.
  • Privacy Concerns
    Since Shodan indexes devices connected to the internet, this can include personal and residential hardware, leading to privacy concerns for individuals whose devices are inadvertently exposed.

URLscan.io features and specs

  • Comprehensive Analysis
    URLscan.io provides a detailed analysis of URLs, including screenshots, domain information, and HTTP transactions, helping users gain deep insights into the content and behavior of a website.
  • Threat Detection
    It helps identify malicious URLs by checking for phishing threats, malware, and other harmful activities. This is valuable for security researchers and IT professionals.
  • Public and Private Scans
    Users can perform both public scans, which are visible to everyone, and private scans that are only accessible by the user, offering flexibility depending on privacy needs.
  • API Access
    URLscan.io provides API access, enabling automated and programmatic interaction with its service, which is beneficial for integrating into other security tools and workflows.
  • Historical Data
    It maintains a historical archive of scanned URLs, allowing users to access past scan results and observe changes in the URL's content and behavior over time.

Possible disadvantages of URLscan.io

  • Limited Free Scans
    The free version of URLscan.io has a limit on the number of scans that can be performed, which might be restrictive for users who require extensive scanning capabilities.
  • Privacy Concerns
    Public scans are accessible by anyone, which might lead to privacy issues if sensitive URLs are mistakenly scanned publicly.
  • API Rate Limits
    API usage has rate limits which could affect users who need to perform a large number of scans or need consistent high-volume access.
  • Data Retention
    Historical scan data is retained for public scans, which could be a concern for users who prefer not to have their scan data stored long-term or made publicly available.
  • Dependency on Service Availability
    As a third-party service, users are dependent on URLscan.io's availability and performance. Any downtime or issues with the service can disrupt users’ workflow.

Shodan videos

Searching the Internet with Shodan (Seen in Mr. Robot)

More videos:

  • Review - Bestech Shodan Unboxing & First Impressions
  • Review - Bestech Shodan FULL Review

URLscan.io videos

No URLscan.io videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

Add video

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Shodan and URLscan.io)
Security
100 100%
0% 0
Monitoring Tools
42 42%
58% 58
Email Marketing
0 0%
100% 100
Web Application Security
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

Share your experience with using Shodan and URLscan.io. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Social recommendations and mentions

Shodan might be a bit more popular than URLscan.io. We know about 92 links to it since March 2021 and only 87 links to URLscan.io. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Shodan mentions (92)

  • Introducing OSINT Template Engine: An open source OSINT Tool.
    Transform OSINT sources such as shodan, bgpview & urlscan into templates which you can use to query & store any and each of the API endpoints they provide. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Some outgoing ports (e.g, port 22) are blocked
    I'm a little surprised you're asking this but as you don't know - if you set the rulebase correctly, you won't get hammered by "public". A lot of people (of course not people here) don't do that which is why shodan.io is full of servers with SSH exposed to the world. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Does anyone want to vet this job opportunity?
    Eh, request a full demo before signing anything. If they make you buy before you can try, move on. Just be advised that data they collect from your site may be used in a database that puts a target on your back. Similar to how shodan.io works. I would probe them on how they handle customer data and if data is shared, partitioned, or isolated to ensure safety from a platform leak. They want to be a security... Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Security issue or coincidence?
    My network is being hit by China and Russia many times per hour. Make sure your firewall is up-to-date and not have any services available on the Internet (WAN). Look at shodan.io which shows you _everything_ is searched on the Internet. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Onion sites crawling: Weird mass "HTTP/1.1 200 " HTTP status line returning?
    In the cases of nginx or apache, I suspect they may be acting as proxies to some backend that also chooses not to send a reason phrase back. Searching for "Reason Phrase" yields a number of bug reports/frameworks that may omit it, and shodan.io shows apache tomcat and a few other services/software that omit the code as well. Source: almost 2 years ago
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URLscan.io mentions (87)

  • Fake costumer support
    The final missing piece is the link, throw that in https://urlscan.io and it will show you if it resolves to a legitimate blizzard domain, which if it does. Pretty safe to say it will be legitimate email and the error is possibly on their part regards to the mailshot/merge or its on your part and its an old blizzard name/account you've long since forgotton about. Source: over 1 year ago
  • legit check please
    Use a site like https://urlscan.io/ to check a url. Source: over 1 year ago
  • Introducing OSINT Template Engine: An open source OSINT Tool.
    Transform OSINT sources such as shodan, bgpview & urlscan into templates which you can use to query & store any and each of the API endpoints they provide. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • cbsecure.online
    Coinbase's social media presence How to report a phishing scam Coinbase.com - our homepage Urlscan - a free service to scan and analyze websites. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Administration with inbibriation
    LMAO! Who else used urlscan.io to preview what this mad man was sending over?! Source: almost 2 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Shodan and URLscan.io, you can also consider the following products

Intruder - Intruder is a security monitoring platform for internet-facing systems.

VirusTotal - VirusTotal is a free service that analyzes suspicious files and URLs and facilitates the quick...

Nessus - Nessus Professional is a security platform designed for businesses who want to protect the security of themselves, their clients, and their customers.

Metadefender - Metadefender, by OPSWAT, allows you to quickly multi-scan your files for malware using 43 antivirus...

Acunetix - Audit your website security and web applications for SQL injection, Cross site scripting and other...

Any.Run - Interactive malware hunting service. Any environments ready for live testing most type of threats.