ImmuniWeb® Discovery vs Shodan: Side-by-Side Comparison (2026)
Features, pricing, ratings, and pros & cons — compared head-to-head.
ImmuniWeb® Discovery is a commercial external attack surface management tool by ImmuniWeb. Shodan is a free external attack surface management tool. Compare features, ratings, integrations, and community reviews side by side to find the best external attack surface management 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 managing sprawling attack surfaces across cloud, SaaS, and third-party integrations should prioritize ImmuniWeb® Discovery for its dark web monitoring and supplier risk visibility, capabilities most competitors either skip or bolt on as afterthoughts. The platform covers five NIST CSF 2.0 functions including asset discovery, continuous monitoring, and supply chain risk, which means it actually closes gaps in how you map external exposure rather than just flagging what you already know exists. Skip this if your organization needs deep cloud-native workload scanning or has zero tolerance for monitoring capabilities that lean detection over remediation; ImmuniWeb® Discovery is built for visibility-first teams, not for shops that demand integrated response automation.
Security teams responsible for internet-facing infrastructure need Shodan to find what attackers see before attackers do. The free tier gives you real-time visibility into your own exposed devices, services, and default credentials across millions of internet scans without licensing friction. Skip this if your organization lacks the operational discipline to act on what you find; Shodan surfaces problems faster than most teams can remediate them, which creates noise without a triage process in place.
