Exterro FTK Imager Pro vs Malheur: Side-by-Side Comparison (2026)
Features, pricing, ratings, and pros & cons — compared head-to-head.
Exterro FTK Imager Pro is a commercial digital forensics and incident response tool by Exterro. Malheur is a free digital forensics and incident response tool. Compare features, ratings, integrations, and community reviews side by side to find the best digital forensics and incident response 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:
Incident response teams and forensic investigators handling iOS devices or encrypted endpoints need FTK Imager Pro for its logical collection capability, which pulls messages, photos, and app data without full disk imaging, cutting acquisition time significantly. The tool's BitLocker detection and decryption paired with write-blocking covers NIST RS.AN and ID.RA requirements for evidence integrity and faster analysis cycles. Skip this if your primary need is network-layer incident detection or you lack dedicated forensics staff; FTK Imager Pro demands hands-on operator expertise and fits workflows where disk acquisition and mobile extraction are blocking your investigation timeline.
Incident response teams with limited budgets who need to triage unknown binaries will find Malheur's automated behavior analysis valuable for rapid malware classification. The tool's machine learning-driven approach handles thousands of samples without manual reverse engineering, and its 373 GitHub stars indicate active community validation of the analysis output. This is not a replacement for a full DFIR platform; Malheur excels at the initial "what is this file" question but lacks the investigation breadth and reporting capabilities enterprise incident handlers expect downstream.
