Shodan vs ZoomEye: Side-by-Side Comparison (2026)
Features, pricing, ratings, and pros & cons — compared head-to-head.
Shodan is a free external attack surface management tool. ZoomEye 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 available product data, here is our conclusion:
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.
Security teams conducting external attack surface discovery on a budget will get the most from ZoomEye; its free tier gives you real-time visibility into exposed assets and service versions across your internet-facing infrastructure without licensing friction. The search engine indexes over 600 million IP addresses and devices, letting you identify vulnerabilities before an attacker does. Skip this if you need continuous posture monitoring or remediation workflows; ZoomEye is a reconnaissance tool, not a management platform.
