Shodan

Shodan is a search engine for devices and services exposed to the internet, used to inventory assets and support authorized analysis of an organization's attack surface.

Instead of indexing web pages, Shodan gathers information about devices and services reachable from the internet, such as open ports and service descriptions. You can search with filters for technical characteristics and location, track the addresses and networks that belong to your own organization, and query the data through an API to feed inventories and authorized investigation routines.

Who uses it: security teams, researchers and infrastructure teams that need to know what is actually visible from the outside. The results help review exposure, but they do not replace security testing, and queries should stay limited to assets you are authorized to analyze.

Shodan has a lifetime Membership at US$49 and API plans at US$69, US$359 and US$1,099 per month, plus Enterprise by quote. Pricing depends on usage credits, not on users.

• Membership: US$49 one-time payment, with no recurring subscription; the upgrade is lifetime. It includes 100 query credits, 100 scan credits and 16 monitored IPs.
• Freelancer: US$69 per month, with 10,000 query credits and 5,120 scan credits per month.
• Small Business: US$359 per month, with 200,000 query credits and 65,536 scan credits. The vuln filter is available, unlike on Freelancer.
• Corporate: US$1,099 per month, with unlimited queries and 327,680 scan credits. The tag filter exists only on this plan.
• Enterprise: price by quote.

One query credit equals 100 results, according to the help center. Shodan says its API plans do not depend on company size and that the same key can be used across the whole organization. The snapshot of the billing page we consulted is old, so the amounts may have changed.

List prices published by the vendor, checked in October 2026.

Through Nexforce Marketplace, Shodan can be contracted in Brazilian reais, with a Brazilian tax invoice.

The main features of Shodan are filtered search for exposed services, address monitoring, the API, query and scan credits, and the Enterprise plan for organizations.

• Search: finds devices and services reachable from the internet, with filters for technical characteristics and location.
• Exposure information: shows ports and service descriptions to understand what is public.
• Shodan Monitor: tracks the organization's addresses and networks. Membership allows monitoring up to 16 IPs.
• API: programmatic queries for inventories and authorized investigation.
• Credits: query credits (1 credit equals 100 results) and scan credits, with volumes that vary by plan.
• Filters by plan: the vuln filter starts at Small Business and the tag filter exists only on Corporate.
• Enterprise: licensing by quote, with a custom user count.

The results support exposure review and do not replace security testing.

Shodan is worth it for security and infrastructure teams that need to see what the company exposes on the internet, with a cheap entry point, but it does not replace a security test.

Pros:

• Membership costs US$49 once and does not expire, which gives access to search at a low fixed cost.
• Pricing depends on credits, not users, and the API key can be shared across the whole organization.
• One query credit returns up to 100 results, and plans range from 10,000 credits to unlimited queries.
• Monitor tracks the organization's IPs, with 16 included in Membership.

Cons:

• Membership has only 100 query credits and 100 scan credits.
• The vuln filter does not exist on Freelancer, and the tag filter exists only on Corporate.
• The jump between API plans is large: US$69, US$359 and US$1,099 per month.
• It supports exposure review and does not replace security testing.

The main alternatives to Shodan are Censys, ZoomEye and Netlas, which also index devices and services exposed to the internet.

• Censys: a search engine for querying internet devices and networks, listed as one of Shodan's closest peers.
• ZoomEye: a network mapping service with a free tier and a proprietary license.
• Netlas: a non-intrusive scanner that covers WHOIS, domain names and SSL certificates.

An article by an author apparently tied to Netlas reports that Shodan returned fewer results than Censys and Netlas, with no verified methodology, so treat that as a hint, not a verdict. Coverage and data freshness vary between tools, and the public comparisons are in large part written by vendors. Test each one against your own assets and measure how many real services it finds before choosing.