Acalvio ShadowPlex vs mysql-honeypotd: Side-by-Side Comparison (2026)
Features, pricing, ratings, and pros & cons — compared head-to-head.
Acalvio ShadowPlex is a commercial honeypots & deception tool by Acalvio Technologies. mysql-honeypotd is a free honeypots & deception tool. Compare features, ratings, integrations, and community reviews side by side to find the best honeypots & deception fit for your security stack.
CST VerdictBased on our analysis of NIST CSF 2.0 coverage, core features, company size fit, deployment model, here is our conclusion:
Mid-market and enterprise security teams with exposed APIs, web applications, or IoT infrastructure should use ShadowPlex to catch reconnaissance and credential attacks before they reach production systems. The platform's external-facing decoys generate high-fidelity threat intelligence in STIX format while monitoring for password spraying and brute-force attempts, directly addressing ID.RA and DE.CM in NIST CSF 2.0. Skip this if your attack surface is entirely internal or if you need deep visibility into post-breach lateral movement; ShadowPlex is optimized for early detection at the perimeter, not incident response.
Small teams deploying MySQL in untrusted networks need mysql-honeypotd for its lightweight footprint and configuration flexibility; a 34-star project with active maintenance means you're not inheriting abandoned code. The low-interaction design catches reconnaissance and basic exploitation attempts without the resource overhead of full database emulation, making it practical for resource-constrained environments. Skip this if you need honeypot coverage across multiple database engines or expect sophisticated attackers who will quickly fingerprint the deception layer.
