Overview
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 accessurlscan.io
URL scanning, phishing analysis, and brand monitoring API
urlscan.io is built for scanning web pages, indexing observed infrastructure, and detecting phishing or brand abuse from captured page data.
Free plan; 30-day commercial-plan trial availablePricing Comparison
| Pricing | Censys | urlscan.io |
|---|---|---|
| Free Tier | Free tier with limited searches and lookup API access | Free plan; 30-day commercial-plan trial available |
| Paid Plans | Prepaid credits from $100 | $5,000/year Automate plan |
| Enterprise | Core and Adversary Investigation are custom priced | $5,000/month or $50,000/year Ultimate plan |
| TLD Coverage | Full IPv4/IPv6 coverage | Scan corpus and search index coverage |
Feature Comparison
| Feature | Censys | urlscan.io |
|---|---|---|
| Free Tier | Limited | Included |
| API Access | Included | Included |
| Bulk Operations | Included | Limited |
| Real-time Data | Included | Included |
| WHOIS Data | Limited | Limited |
| DNS Lookup | Included | Included |
| Domain Valuation | Not Included | Not Included |
| Brand Monitoring | Not Included | Included |
| MCP/AI Integration | Not Included | Not Included |
Which is Better?
Choose Censys if you need
- Comprehensive internet scanning
- Certificate and asset intelligence
- External attack surface discovery
Choose urlscan.io if you need
- Excellent page rendering and phishing investigation workflow
- Strong brand-monitoring and search capabilities
- Helpful for URL-centric security operations
Consider DomScan Instead
DomScan offers the best of both worlds with comprehensive features and developer-friendly pricing.
- ✓ Free tier: 10,000 credits/month (no credit card)
- ✓ 1,100+ TLDs supported
- ✓ MCP integration for AI assistants
- ✓ Domain valuation, brand monitoring, OSINT
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