Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Shodan VS PlexTrac

Compare Shodan VS PlexTrac and see what are their differences

Shodan logo Shodan

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

PlexTrac logo PlexTrac

PlexTrac is the #1 AI-powered platform for pentest reporting and threat exposure management, helping cybersecurity teams efficiently address the most critical threats and vulnerabilities.
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  • Shodan Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-03-16
  • PlexTrac Prioritizing Vulnerabilities
    Prioritizing Vulnerabilities //
    2025-04-02
  • PlexTrac Runbooks and Procedures
    Runbooks and Procedures //
    2025-04-02
  • PlexTrac Report Findings
    Report Findings //
    2025-04-02
  • PlexTrac Reporting Authoring
    Reporting Authoring //
    2025-04-02
  • PlexTrac Dashboard
    Dashboard //
    2025-04-08
  • PlexTrac
    Image date //
    2025-04-08

PlexTrac’s automated platform accelerates report writing and the findings handoff by enabling pentesters to reuse content, leverage over 25,000 pre-built findings writeups (CWEs, CVEs, and KEVs), customize templates without code, analyze data across sources, and streamline QA with Google-doc-like features. And with our new, native AI solution — Plex AI — you can auto-generate finding descriptions, remediation recommendations, and security narratives, saving hours of manual effort and scaling report authoring with ease.

PlexTrac centralizes findings from automated pentesting tools, vulnerability scanners, etc., providing a single source of truth. With PlexTrac Priorities, you can contextually score those findings to pinpoint what needs fixing first. Its customizable scoring equation highlights the most critical threats, helping allocate resources for maximum impact. The Priorities dashboard also keeps stakeholders informed, showcasing risk status and progress at a glance.

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.

PlexTrac features and specs

  • Comprehensive Reporting
    PlexTrac offers detailed reporting features which allow users to create, customize, and manage security reports efficiently, thus saving time and reducing errors.
  • Collaboration and Integration
    The platform supports team collaboration with features that allow multiple users to work on a single report. It integrates well with various tools, enhancing workflow productivity.
  • Centralized Vulnerability Management
    PlexTrac centralizes vulnerability data, making it easier for security teams to track, manage, and remediate vulnerabilities effectively.
  • User-Friendly Interface
    The platform is designed with an intuitive interface that is easy to use, which lowers the learning curve and boosts user satisfaction.
  • AI Capabilities
    Boost efficiency by using AI to auto-generate findings and narrative descriptions and analyze report data.
  • Schedule & Scope
    Schedule and scope engagements, manage inbound scheduling requests, and easily manage team workload capacity.
  • Procedures & Runbooks
    Build procedures into reusable test plans to report against frameworks, ensure consistent testing, quickly ramp up new pentesters, and communicate what testing has been completed.
  • Data Ingestion
    Ingest data from all your pentesting security tools and scanners and deduplicate vulnerabilities via a wide range of platform integrations.
  • Reusable Content
    Store and reuse details writeups, narratives and procedures to streamline report creation and drive consistency–including the industry’s largest out-of-the-box repository of over 25,000 writeups.
  • Client Portal
    Deliver actionable engagement results through a white-labeled client portal with dynamic data, a real-time view of findings to track progress, report visuals, and access to historical data.

Shodan videos

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

More videos:

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

PlexTrac videos

Create a Pentest Report in 5 Minutes or Less with PlexTrac — PlexTrac Demo

More videos:

  • Demo - Learn how to prioritize remediation with configurable risk scoring.
  • Review - Plextrac Overview
  • Review - Analysts and Analytics: PlexTrac Like a Pro Episode 2 (May 27th, 2020) - PlexTrac Webinars
  • Review - Introduction: PlexTrac Like a Pro Episode 1 (April 22nd, 2020) - PlexTrac Webinars

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Shodan and PlexTrac)
Security
100 100%
0% 0
Cyber Security
47 47%
53% 53
Monitoring Tools
100 100%
0% 0
Penetration Testing
0 0%
100% 100

Questions and Answers

As answered by people managing Shodan and PlexTrac.

What makes your product unique?

PlexTrac's answer:

PlexTrac is the only platform that bridges the gap between offensive and defensive security teams by bringing together pentest reporting, vulnerability management, and threat exposure tracking in one unified, workflow-driven platform.

Unlike traditional tools that just generate static reports or list findings, PlexTrac enables real-time collaboration, automated risk scoring, and continuous validation — helping teams move from findings to fixes faster.

Why should a person choose your product over its competitors?

PlexTrac's answer:

People choose PlexTrac because it:

Saves time — teams report saving 30–70% of the time previously spent on manual reporting and remediation tracking.

Centralizes security data — findings from scanners, pentests, bug bounty platforms, and red team ops are all in one place.

Prioritizes what matters — contextual risk scoring helps teams focus on the vulnerabilities that actually pose a business risk.

Enables automation — from report generation to ticketing workflows with Jira, ServiceNow, and more.

Works for both enterprises and MSSPs — with multi-tenant support, customizable templates, and powerful integrations.

Bottom line: PlexTrac turns vulnerability noise into actionable, trackable, and reportable outcomes.

How would you describe your primary audience?

PlexTrac's answer:

PlexTrac primarily serves:

Enterprise cybersecurity teams (especially blue and purple teams)

Red teams and penetration testers looking to streamline reporting and remediation

MSSPs who need a scalable platform to manage clients, reports, and workflows

CISOs and security leaders who want visibility into remediation progress and risk trends

These users are typically frustrated by manual workflows, fragmented tools, and poor collaboration across security functions.

What's the story behind your product?

PlexTrac's answer:

PlexTrac was founded by Dan DeCloss, a former red teamer and security leader, who experienced firsthand the pain of manual reporting, siloed data, and disconnected remediation workflows.

He built PlexTrac to bridge the communication gap between red and blue teams, helping security professionals work faster, collaborate better, and reduce real risk more efficiently.

Since its founding, PlexTrac has evolved from a better reporting tool to a comprehensive threat exposure management platform used by hundreds of security teams worldwide.

Who are some of the biggest customers of your product?

PlexTrac's answer:

Fortune 500 enterprises across finance, healthcare, and tech

Leading MSSPs and consultancies who deliver pentesting and security services at scale

Federal government agencies and defense contractors requiring compliance with frameworks like NIST and CMMC

Higher education institutions with active security testing programs

User comments

Share your experience with using Shodan and PlexTrac. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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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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PlexTrac mentions (0)

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

What are some alternatives?

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

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

dradis - Dradis is the open-source reporting and collaboration tool for IT security professionals.

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

AttackForge - AttackForge is the #1 Penetration Testing Management & Collaboration Platform for Enterprise. Bringing Security & Business Together On Your Pentesting Program.

Acunetix - Audit your website security and web applications for SQL injection, Cross site scripting and other...

Faraday IDE - Collaborative Penetration Test and Vulnerability Management Platform that increases transparency...