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wigle.net VS Nmap

Compare wigle.net VS Nmap and see what are their differences

Netumo
Ensure healthy website performance, uptime, and free from vulnerabilities. Automatic checks for SSL Certificates, domains and monitor issues with your websites all from one console and get instant notifications on any issues. featured
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Contents:
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  3. » Reviews
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wigle.net logo wigle.net

WiGLE (Wireless Geographic Logging Engine)

Nmap logo Nmap

Nmap Free Security Scanner, Port Scanner, & Network Exploration Tool. Download open source software for Linux, Windows, UNIX, FreeBSD, etc.
  • wigle.net Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-17
  • Nmap Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-06-15

wigle.net features and specs

  • Comprehensive Database
    Wigle.net offers an extensive database of wireless networks around the world, providing valuable insights into global WiFi coverage.
  • User Contribution
    The platform allows users to contribute data, promoting community involvement and continuously updating the database with new information.
  • Open Data Access
    Wigle.net provides access to its data for non-commercial use, supporting research, education, and personal projects.
  • Visualization Tools
    The site includes tools for visualizing wireless networks on maps, aiding in geographic analysis and planning.
  • Educational Resource
    It serves as an educational resource for understanding wireless networks, their distribution, and security concerns.

Possible disadvantages of wigle.net

  • Privacy Concerns
    There are concerns about privacy and consent, as the platform collects and shares information about wireless networks without explicit permission from network owners.
  • Potential for Misuse
    The data could potentially be used for inappropriate purposes, such as unauthorized network access or tracking individuals through network usage.
  • Data Accuracy
    Since data is crowdsourced, there may be inconsistencies or inaccuracies in the information provided, affecting reliability.
  • Limited Commercial Use
    The open data access is limited to non-commercial purposes, which might restrict its usefulness for businesses looking to leverage this information commercially.
  • Legal Issues
    There might be legal implications of collecting and distributing network data, depending on local laws and regulations.

Nmap features and specs

  • Comprehensive Scanning
    Nmap can perform a wide variety of scans, including port scanning, service detection, and OS fingerprinting, making it a versatile tool for network exploration and security auditing.
  • Open Source
    As an open-source tool, Nmap is free to use and has a large community of users contributing to its development and improvement.
  • Scripting Engine
    The Nmap Scripting Engine (NSE) allows users to write custom scripts to automate tasks, detect vulnerabilities, and extract information, significantly extending its capabilities.
  • Cross-Platform Support
    Nmap is available on multiple platforms, including Windows, Linux, and macOS, ensuring broad accessibility for users.
  • Large Knowledge Base
    Nmap has extensive documentation and a wealth of online resources, tutorials, and community support, making it easier for beginners to learn and use the tool effectively.
  • Performance Optimization
    Nmap is designed to be efficient and can handle large networks, making it suitable for both small-scale and enterprise-level scanning.

Possible disadvantages of Nmap

  • Complexity
    Due to its extensive features and options, Nmap can be overwhelming for beginners, requiring a steep learning curve to fully utilize its capabilities.
  • Potential for Misuse
    Nmap can be used for malicious activities such as unauthorized network scanning, potentially leading to security violations and ethical concerns.
  • Permission Issues
    Using Nmap without proper authorization can be illegal in some jurisdictions, and unauthorized scans can be considered invasive or hostile by network administrators.
  • False Positives/Negatives
    Like any scanning tool, Nmap can produce false positives and negatives, requiring additional verification and analysis to ensure accuracy.
  • Resource Intensive
    Some Nmap scans, especially comprehensive ones, can be resource-intensive, potentially affecting network performance and consuming significant CPU and memory resources.
  • Network Disruption
    Aggressive scanning techniques used by Nmap can disrupt network services and lead to denial of service, particularly in sensitive or critical environments.

Analysis of Nmap

Overall verdict

  • Yes, Nmap is a highly effective and reliable tool for network scanning and security auditing. Its comprehensive suite of features and frequent updates ensure it remains relevant in the constantly evolving landscape of network security.

Why this product is good

  • Nmap is widely regarded as a powerful and versatile network scanning tool. It is known for its ability to discover hosts and services on a computer network, thus creating a 'map' of the network. Security professionals and system administrators use it to conduct network inventory, manage service upgrade schedules, and monitor host or service uptime. Its robustness, open-source nature, and support of a wide range of platforms make it a staple in the toolkit of network security experts.

Recommended for

  • Network security professionals
  • System administrators
  • Penetration testers
  • IT professionals responsible for network management
  • Anyone interested in learning more about network mapping and security

wigle.net videos

+ Add

War Driving in 2020 With Wigle.net

More videos:

  • Review - From WiFi SSID to your home address! wigle.net

Nmap videos

+ Add

Nmap Tutorial For Beginners - 1 - What is Nmap?

More videos:

  • Review - Nmap - Review of Scan Types
  • Review - LABS 50 Bypassing Windows Firewall Using Nmap Evasion Techniques REVIEW

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to wigle.net and Nmap)

wigle.net

Nmap

Wi-Fi
100 100%
Wi-Fi
0% 0
Monitoring Tools
4 4%
Monitoring Tools
96% 96
Tool
100 100%
Tool
0% 0
Security
0 0%
Security
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare wigle.net and Nmap

wigle.net Reviews

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Nmap Reviews

The Top 5 Open Source Vulnerability Scanners
Nmap is a tool that scans ports, does service fingerprinting, and identifies versions of operating systems. Nmap also comes with a scripting engine that detects security vulnerabilities. Once these are detected, Vulcan’s platform can help you to prioritize and fix vulnerabilities.
Source: vulcan.io
9 Best Angry IP Scanner Alternatives Reviewed 2021 (Free & Paid)
If you’re a network administrator looking for more depth and raw power from a port scanner, look no further than Nmap. What Nmap lacks in frills and functional GUI it makes up for with sheer command-line based power. If you’re not a fan of strictly just a command-line interface, you can always use Zenmap, which is the exact same software just with a graphical interface. Both...
Source: www.comparitech.com
15 Best Nmap Alternatives Network Security Scanner
Nmap is an open-source tool that lots of IT professionals find useful in their careers. It is a tool that can locate available hosts and other services that they offer within a network. The Nmap program makes use of raw IP packets to find the hosts and services that are available.
Source: technicalustad.com
10 Best WireShark Alternatives for Android Devices in 2021
Nmap is a popular open-source network scanning app for Android and desktop. While it works on both rooted and non-rooted Android, you get more functionality during a rooted Android smartphone. Like some apps, Nmap is not available on Google play store or their website.
Source: techreen.com
Alternatives to Nmap: from simple to advanced network scanning
This month marks the 20th anniversary of Nmap, the open-source network mapping tool that became the standard used by many IT professionals, but that can be a bit much if you only need to do general network maintenance and are intimidated by its command-line interface.
Source: www.networkworld.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Nmap should be more popular than wigle.net. It has been mentiond 200 times since March 2021. 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.

wigle.net mentions (53)

  • Everyone knows your location, Part 2: try it yourself and share the results
    Not exactly related but on the topic of finding target's location, A few years ago I used to run a little demo of capturing probe wifi ssid network on prefered network list of nearby devices and used https://wigle.net/ to identify places that people has visited... It was eye opening for some people in the audience for sure. - Source: Hacker News / about 2 months ago
  • Modern Wardriving
    It's not to get into a network, it's just to list where they're at.. For points. Similar to internet points :). There's no hacking involved just nerds being nerds What you find shows up here: https://wigle.net/ As you can see there's quite a few people who do it. - Source: Hacker News / 10 months ago
  • Show HN: BeaconDB – An Alternative to Mozilla Location Services
    As nobody has yet mentioned it, there is also WiGLE [1] which has tracked over a billion unique networks. [1] https://wigle.net/. - Source: Hacker News / 11 months ago
  • Apple allows applications to track user locations without authorization
    SSID / BSSID is often enough to pinpoint the location of someone. Recently someone debated this with me, so I asked him what his wifi AP name was, then proceeded to provide their home address. How? By searching it in https://wigle.net. That ended the debate quite swiftly. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • Apple allows applications to track user locations without authorization
    IP gives you a rough location (like which city at best), SSID/BSSID can give you street/building level accuracy if it's in a database like https://wigle.net Considering the scale of these apps, I'm guessing they have internal wifi<->location databases with fairly great accuracy. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
View more

Nmap mentions (200)

  • 🛡️ Top 10 Free Penetration Testing Tools Every Security Team Should Use in 2025
    Nmap (Network Mapper) is like a GPS for your network. Scan ports, find devices, and discover what’s alive and vulnerable. - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
  • 3 Types of Chaos Experiments and How To Run Them
    Start by mapping out your network’s topology, including routers, switches, gateways, and the connections between different segments. Tools like Nmap or network diagram software can help visualize your network’s structure. - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
  • How to Install and Use Nmap in Termux
    If you want to scan a website, Nmap can help you find its open ports, see active IPs, and get other important details quickly. For anyone serious about cybersecurity, Nmap is a necessary tool. To learn more, visit their official website at Nmap.org. - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
  • Your First Ethical Hack: Learn Network Scanning with Nmap
    Starting Nmap 7.80 ( https://nmap.org ) at 2025-04-12 00:10 IST Nmap scan report for scanme.nmap.org (45.33.32.156) Host is up (0.24s latency). Other addresses for scanme.nmap.org (not scanned): 2600:3c01::f03c:91ff:fe18:bb2f Not shown: 991 closed ports PORT STATE SERVICE 22/tcp open ssh 25/tcp filtered smtp 80/tcp open http 135/tcp filtered msrpc 139/tcp filtered netbios-ssn 161/tcp ... - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
  • The Impact of Open-Source Tools in Cyber Warfare: A Deep Dive
    The democratization of powerful software technologies is a double-edged sword. On one hand, open-source tools empower organizations and individuals to bolster their cybersecurity defenses without incurring steep financial costs. On the other hand, these same tools can be harnessed by malicious actors, leading to a surge in both the frequency and sophistication of cyberattacks. Open-source resources like Metasploit... - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing wigle.net and Nmap, you can also consider the following products

OpenCellID - OpenCelliD is the largest Open Database of Cell Towers & their locations. You can geolocate IoT & Mobile devices without GPS, explore Mobile Operator coverage and more!

Angry IP Scanner - Open-source and cross-platform network scanner designed to be fast and simple to use

OpenSignal - Mobile analytics and insights on wireless connectivity from Opensignal, the independent global standard for understanding the true state of the world's mobile network.

Zenmap - Zenmap is the official cross-platform GUI for the Nmap Security Scanner.

Android IMSI-Catcher Detector - Detect attacks of fake base stations such as IMSI-Catcher and StingRay on your GSM/UMTS network.

Cisco DNA Center - Find and resolve network issues with Cisco DNA Center. Provides software-based network automation and assurance. Control and manage intent-based networks.

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