BW-Pot vs Acalvio ShadowPlex: 2026 Comparison
BW-Pot is a free honeypots & deception tool. Acalvio ShadowPlex is a commercial honeypots & deception tool by Acalvio Technologies. 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:
Security teams validating detection capabilities or running incident response tabletop exercises will find BW-Pot's value in its free deployment model and direct BigQuery integration for attack log analysis without infrastructure overhead. The automated logging pipeline eliminates manual log parsing, letting you focus on signal rather than collection. Skip this if you need production-grade deception at scale across network segments; BW-Pot's web-only scope means you're blind to non-HTTP attack vectors and lateral movement detection.
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.
