Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Shodan VS Acunetix

Compare Shodan VS Acunetix and see what are their differences

Shodan logo Shodan

Shodan is the world's first search engine for Internet-connected devices.

Acunetix logo Acunetix

Audit your website security and web applications for SQL injection, Cross site scripting and other...
  • Shodan Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-03-16
  • Acunetix Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-03-13

Shodan features and specs

  • Comprehensive Data Collection
    Shodan extensively scans the internet, collecting data from a wide range of devices and services, which provides users with a thorough overview of their network exposure.
  • Security Awareness
    It helps organizations identify and address security vulnerabilities by revealing exposed devices and services that might otherwise go unnoticed.
  • Automation Capabilities
    The platform offers an API that allows users to automate searches and integrate Shodan data into their own tools and workflows.
  • Detailed Search Filters
    Shodan provides advanced search filters that allow users to narrow down results based on specific criteria such as geographic location, device type, or operating system.
  • Real-Time Monitoring
    Users can set up real-time alerts to monitor for new exposures, ensuring timely response to potential threats.

Possible disadvantages of Shodan

  • Ethical and Legal Concerns
    Shodan can be used by malicious actors to identify and exploit vulnerabilities, raising ethical and legal questions about its use and data collection practices.
  • Complex UI
    The user interface can be overwhelming for beginners due to its complexity and the vast amount of data available, making it difficult to navigate without prior experience.
  • Subscription Costs
    While Shodan offers a free tier, accessing advanced features and extensive search capabilities requires a subscription, which might be costly for some users.
  • Potential for False Positives
    The data collected by Shodan might include false positives, where benign devices are flagged as vulnerabilities, thus requiring users to manually verify each finding.
  • Privacy Concerns
    Since Shodan indexes devices connected to the internet, this can include personal and residential hardware, leading to privacy concerns for individuals whose devices are inadvertently exposed.

Acunetix features and specs

  • Comprehensive Vulnerability Scanning
    Acunetix offers a thorough and detailed scan of websites, identifying a wide range of vulnerabilities, including SQL injection, XSS, and more.
  • Advanced Automation
    The tool automates much of the scanning process, reducing the need for manual interventions and speeding up the identification of security flaws.
  • User-Friendly Interface
    Acunetix comes with an intuitive and easy-to-navigate interface, making it accessible even for users who are not cybersecurity experts.
  • Continuous Monitoring
    It provides continuous security monitoring, keeping track of any changes in the web application that could introduce new vulnerabilities.
  • Comprehensive Reporting
    The tool offers detailed reporting features that provide insights into found vulnerabilities, making it easier to understand and fix security issues.
  • Integration Capabilities
    Acunetix can be integrated with various CI/CD pipelines and other security tools, enhancing its utility in a modern DevOps environment.

Possible disadvantages of Acunetix

  • Cost
    Acunetix can be relatively expensive, especially for small businesses or independent developers who might find it cost-prohibitive.
  • Resource Intensive
    The scanning process can be resource-intensive, requiring significant server resources and sometimes impacting the performance of the application being scanned.
  • False Positives
    While advanced, the scanner can sometimes generate false positives, which require time and expertise to manually verify.
  • Limited Mobile App Scanning
    Acunetix primarily focuses on web applications and offers limited capabilities when it comes to scanning mobile apps.
  • Learning Curve
    Despite its user-friendly interface, new users may still face a learning curve to fully understand and utilize all the features effectively.
  • Customization
    Some users have reported that the tool's customization options are not as extensive as they would like, limiting the ability to tailor scans to specific needs.

Shodan videos

Searching the Internet with Shodan (Seen in Mr. Robot)

More videos:

  • Review - Bestech Shodan Unboxing & First Impressions
  • Review - Bestech Shodan FULL Review

Acunetix videos

How to Perform Security Testing Using Acunetix Web Vulnerability Scanner Tool

More videos:

  • Review - Acunetix - Best Web Application Security Scanner @Web Hacking
  • Review - Acunetix Quick-start Guide

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Shodan and Acunetix)
Security
52 52%
48% 48
Cyber Security
16 16%
84% 84
Monitoring Tools
100 100%
0% 0
Web Application Security
52 52%
48% 48

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Shodan and Acunetix

Shodan Reviews

We have no reviews of Shodan yet.
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Acunetix Reviews

10 Best Burp Suite Alternatives For Windows In 2023
Verdict: Operating on two unique threat detecting technologies, Acunetix performs fast scans to detect vulnerabilities accurately in an application, API, or website. It is easy to deploy and caters to the sensibilities of non-technical employees. This quality alone makes Acunetix a better alternative to Burp Suite.
Best Burp Suite Alternatives (Free and Paid) for 2023
Acunetix by Invicti is the market leader in providing automated web application security testing and is the software of choice for many Fortune 500 customers. It can detect and report on a wide array of web application vulnerabilities. Acunetix integrates with popular Issue Trackers and WAFs and is also available on Windows and Linux.
9 Best Angry IP Scanner Alternatives Reviewed 2021 (Free & Paid)
Acunetix is a powerful network and web application scanner that can help you discover open ports, hidden services, and vulnerabilities across your network. Acunetix is unique in combining both web scanning, and network scanning into one easy to use graphical tool that’s compatible for both Windows and Linux.
10 Best Tenable Nessus Alternatives For 2021 [Updated List]
Acunetix is an intuitive and easy-to-use web application security scanner. Its setup is very simple, with no need for lengthy configurations. The platform can scan all types of pages, APIs, and complex web applications. These include pages that contain lots of HTML5 and JavaScript. Acunetix can perform lightning-fast scans without overloading the server.
Best Nessus Alternatives (Free and Paid) for 2021
It offers advanced Vulnerability Management features right into its core, prioritizing risks based on data through a consolidated view. Acunetix also offers the ability to automate your scan. It is suitable for large-scale organizations as it can handle many devices on a network. HSBC, NASA, USA Air force are few giants that use Acunetix for vulnerability tests.

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Shodan seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 92 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.

Shodan mentions (92)

  • Introducing OSINT Template Engine: An open source OSINT Tool.
    Transform OSINT sources such as shodan, bgpview & urlscan into templates which you can use to query & store any and each of the API endpoints they provide. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Some outgoing ports (e.g, port 22) are blocked
    I'm a little surprised you're asking this but as you don't know - if you set the rulebase correctly, you won't get hammered by "public". A lot of people (of course not people here) don't do that which is why shodan.io is full of servers with SSH exposed to the world. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Does anyone want to vet this job opportunity?
    Eh, request a full demo before signing anything. If they make you buy before you can try, move on. Just be advised that data they collect from your site may be used in a database that puts a target on your back. Similar to how shodan.io works. I would probe them on how they handle customer data and if data is shared, partitioned, or isolated to ensure safety from a platform leak. They want to be a security... Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Security issue or coincidence?
    My network is being hit by China and Russia many times per hour. Make sure your firewall is up-to-date and not have any services available on the Internet (WAN). Look at shodan.io which shows you _everything_ is searched on the Internet. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Onion sites crawling: Weird mass "HTTP/1.1 200 " HTTP status line returning?
    In the cases of nginx or apache, I suspect they may be acting as proxies to some backend that also chooses not to send a reason phrase back. Searching for "Reason Phrase" yields a number of bug reports/frameworks that may omit it, and shodan.io shows apache tomcat and a few other services/software that omit the code as well. Source: almost 2 years ago
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Acunetix mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of Acunetix yet. Tracking of Acunetix recommendations started around Mar 2021.

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Shodan and Acunetix, you can also consider the following products

Intruder - Intruder is a security monitoring platform for internet-facing systems.

HackerOne - HackerOne provides a platform designed to streamline vulnerability coordination and bug bounty program by enlisting hackers.

Nessus - Nessus Professional is a security platform designed for businesses who want to protect the security of themselves, their clients, and their customers.

Censys - Censys helps organizations, individuals, and researchers find and monitor every server on the Internet to reduce exposure and improve security.

Nikto - Nikto is an Open Source (GPL) web server scanner which performs comprehensive tests against web...

Trustwave Services - Trustwave is a leading cybersecurity and managed security services provider that helps businesses fight cybercrime, protect data and reduce security risk.