Censys
vs
Shodan
Censys vs Shodan
Domain API comparison
Overview
Which of these two providers fits my workload?
Censys
Internet intelligence and attack surface platform
Censys delivers internet-wide scanning, certificate intelligence, and external attack surface discovery for security teams and researchers.
Free tier with limited searches and lookup API accessShodan
Internet exposure search for devices and services
Shodan indexes internet-facing devices, banners, vulnerabilities, and exposed services, and complements domain-focused threat tools.
Free account; academic Membership upgrade availablePricing comparison
Watch out for: Credits, pages, requests, records, compute units, subscriptions, and browser-time blocks are not interchangeable.
| Pricing | Censys | Shodan |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier | Free tier with limited searches and lookup API access | Free account; academic Membership upgrade available |
| Paid plans | Prepaid credits from $100 | $49 one-time Membership or $69/month Freelancer |
| Enterprise | Core and Adversary Investigation are custom priced | $1,099/month Corporate; enterprise custom |
| How usage is billed | Credits, pages, requests, records, compute units, subscriptions, and browser-time blocks are not interchangeable. | Credits, pages, requests, records, compute units, subscriptions, and browser-time blocks are not interchangeable. |
Feature comparison
| Feature | Censys | Shodan |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier | Limited | Limited |
| API access | Included | Included |
| Bulk operations | Included | Included |
| Real-time data | Included | Included |
| WHOIS data | Limited | Limited |
| DNS lookup | Included | Included |
| Domain valuation | Not included | Not included |
| Brand monitoring | Not included | Not included |
| MCP/AI integration | Not included | Not included |
Which is better?
Choose Censys if you need
- Internet-wide scanning data
- Certificate and asset intelligence
- External attack surface discovery
Choose Shodan if you need
- Device and exposed-service discovery
- Vulnerability and exposure search
- API and alerting for exposure monitoring
Consider DomScan instead
Sources
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