urlscan.io
vs
VirusTotal
urlscan.io vs VirusTotal
Domain API comparison
Overview
Which of these two providers fits my workload?
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 multiple antivirus engines and security tools.
Noncommercial Public API: 500 requests/day and 4 requests/minutePricing comparison
Watch out for: Credits, pages, requests, records, compute units, subscriptions, and browser-time blocks are not interchangeable.
| 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+ |
| 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 | 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
- Page scanning for phishing investigations
- Brand monitoring and search
- Helpful for URL-centric security operations
Choose VirusTotal if you need
- Multi-engine malware and URL analysis
- Free noncommercial Public API
Consider DomScan instead
DomScan combines broad features with 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
Sources
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