Overview
urlscan.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 availableVirusTotal
Domain & URL Threat Intelligence
VirusTotal analyzes domains, URLs, and files for malware and malicious activity using 70+ antivirus engines and security tools.
Noncommercial Public API: 500 requests/day and 4 requests/minutePricing Comparison
| Pricing | urlscan.io | VirusTotal |
|---|---|---|
| Free Tier | Free plan; 30-day commercial-plan trial available | Noncommercial Public API: 500 requests/day and 4 requests/minute |
| Paid Plans | $5,000/year Automate plan | $75,000/year Google Threat Intelligence Standard |
| Enterprise | $5,000/month or $50,000/year Ultimate plan | $1.1 million/year Enterprise+ |
| TLD Coverage | Scan corpus and search index coverage | All domains analyzed |
Feature Comparison
| Feature | urlscan.io | VirusTotal |
|---|---|---|
| Free Tier | Included | Included |
| API Access | Included | Included |
| Bulk Operations | Limited | Limited |
| Real-time Data | Included | Included |
| WHOIS Data | Limited | Included |
| DNS Lookup | Included | Included |
| Domain Valuation | Not Included | Not Included |
| Brand Monitoring | Included | Limited |
| MCP/AI Integration | Not Included | Not Included |
Which is Better?
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
Choose VirusTotal if you need
- Industry-leading threat detection
- Google-owned reliability
- Generous free tier
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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