The Top 10 OSINT Tools in 2026 (Free and Paid), Ranked by What They Do Best

What are the best OSINT tools in 2026?

There is no single best OSINT tool, because the field splits by task. For visual link analysis the leader is Maltego, for internet-exposed infrastructure it is Shodan, for automated collection SpiderFoot, for breach exposure Have I Been Pwned, for archived leaks Intelligence X, for usernames Maigret, for faces PimEyes, for evidence capture Hunchly, and for domain recon theHarvester. To scan your own exposure rather than someone else's, use a self-OSINT tool like Clearfront.

The quick reference, each tool in the lane it wins:

• -Maltego: best for link analysis and entity graphs. Free Basic tier, paid Pro and Enterprise.
• -Shodan: best for internet-exposed devices and infrastructure. Free account, $49 one-time membership, paid tiers.
• -SpiderFoot: best for automated all-in-one collection. Free and open-source, paid cloud version.
• -Have I Been Pwned: best for breach and credential exposure. Free for individuals, paid API tiers.
• -Intelligence X: best for leaks, pastes, and deleted or archived data. Free tier, paid from about 7 euros a month.
• -Clearfront: best for self-OSINT, scanning your own footprint. Free and open-source, runs locally.
• -Maigret: best for username enumeration across thousands of sites. Free and open-source.
• -PimEyes: best for reverse face search. Limited free tier, paid from $29.99 a month.
• -Hunchly: best for evidence capture and case files. Paid at $129.99 a year, now part of Maltego.
• -theHarvester: best for domain, email, and subdomain recon. Free and open-source.

Prices here were current in mid-2026. Tiers change, so check the official page linked in each review before you buy.

The 10 best OSINT tools, reviewed

1. Maltego: best for link analysis

Maltego is the reference tool for visual link analysis. You drop in a starting point, a name, email, domain, or company, and it maps the connections into a graph using hundreds of data integrations. It is what most professional investigators reach for when a case has many entities to untangle. A free Basic tier gives you a taste with limited monthly credits, while the paid Professional and Enterprise plans run into the thousands of dollars a year. Maltego is Munich-based, raised $100 million in growth funding, and in 2025 acquired the evidence-capture tool Hunchly. See Maltego pricing ↗.

2. Shodan: best for exposed infrastructure

Shodan is a search engine for internet-connected devices: servers, webcams, industrial controllers, and anything else with an exposed port. Investigators and defenders use it to find what a company, or a home network, is unintentionally showing the world. A free account allows limited searches, a famous one-time $49 membership unlocks far more, and subscription tiers start at $69 a month for heavier or programmatic use. It is the fastest way to see your own attack surface from the outside. Explore it at shodan.io ↗.

3. SpiderFoot: best for automated collection

SpiderFoot automates the grunt work. Point it at an email, name, domain, or IP and it queries more than 200 data sources on its own, then maps what it finds. The open-source version is free under the MIT licence and still actively maintained in 2026, and a paid cloud version, SpiderFoot HX, adds a managed interface, faster scans, and team features. It is the closest the free world gets to a one-click investigation. Get it on GitHub ↗.

4. Have I Been Pwned: best for breach exposure

Have I Been Pwned is the standard for checking breach and credential exposure. Enter an email and it tells you which known breaches include it, and it now indexes infostealer stealer logs too, so you can see the specific sites your saved passwords leaked from. Web search is free for individuals and the Pwned Passwords API is free, while automated, domain, and high-volume access sit behind paid Core, Pro, and High RPM subscriptions. The free alternatives are compared in open-source Have I Been Pwned alternatives. Check yourself at haveibeenpwned.com ↗.

5. Intelligence X: best for leaks and archives

Intelligence X is a search engine and archive for material other indexes drop: historical leaks, pastes, darkweb pages, and data that has since been deleted. It is the tool to reach for when you need the record of an old breach or a page that someone scrubbed. A limited free tier lets you test a search, with paid plans from about 7 euros a month for individuals up to enterprise API licences. See the Intelligence X product page ↗.

6. Clearfront: best for self-OSINT

Full disclosure: I build Clearfront, so weigh this entry against the rest rather than taking my word for it. Where the tools above are built to investigate other people, Clearfront is built to investigate yourself. You give it one identifier and it runs the username, email, breach, and broker checks in one sweep, connects the results into an evidence graph, and an AI security analyst writes up what is exposed with a confidence rating on each finding. It wraps many of the tools on this list, it is free and open-source, and it runs on your own machine, so your self-audit never becomes someone else's dataset. Here is how to install it and run your first scan.

7. Maigret: best for username search

Maigret is the username workhorse. Give it a handle and it checks more than 3,000 sites, then builds a report of where that name exists and what each profile reveals. It is a free, open-source successor to the well-known Sherlock, and it is the fastest way to see how far one reused username spreads across the web. I cover what that reveals in how to find every account linked to a username. Get it on GitHub ↗.

8. PimEyes: best for face search

PimEyes is the most capable public reverse face search. Upload a photo and it scans the open web for other places that face appears. It is powerful and genuinely unsettling, which is exactly why it belongs on a privacy toolkit: the most useful thing most people can do with it is search their own face and see what a stranger could find. The free tier only shows that matches exist, and seeing the links starts at $29.99 a month. I dig into face-search exposure in is your face searchable. It lives at pimeyes.com ↗.

9. Hunchly: best for evidence capture

Hunchly solves a problem every serious investigation hits: proving what you saw and when. It runs in your browser and automatically captures, timestamps, and organises every page you visit into a tamper-evident case file, so your findings hold up later. It is a paid tool at $129.99 a year with a 30-day trial, and it is now part of Maltego after the 2025 acquisition. See Hunchly pricing ↗.

10. theHarvester: best for domain recon

theHarvester is a classic for the early, passive stage of an investigation into a domain or an organisation. From public sources it gathers email addresses, subdomains, hostnames, and employee names tied to a target, giving you the map before you go deeper. It is free, open-source, and comes pre-installed on security distributions like Kali Linux. Get it on GitHub ↗.

How do you choose the right OSINT tool?

Start from what you are trying to do, not from the tool. Match the goal to the lane, and expect to run more than one, because each tool sees a different slice.

• -To check your own exposure: start with a self-OSINT scanner, then a breach check.
• -To investigate a person: start with username and email tools, then pivot outward.
• -To map a company or its infrastructure: reach for Shodan, theHarvester, and a framework like SpiderFoot.
• -To keep court-ready evidence: capture as you go with Hunchly.
• -To untangle a web of connected entities: bring it together in Maltego.

The one blind spot every tool on this list shares

Almost every tool here is built to look outward, at other people and other networks. The blind spot they share is you. Before you learn to profile anyone else, it is worth running the same techniques on your own footprint to see what a stranger already can, because your exposure is the one you can actually fix.

That is what Clearfront does in one sweep on your own machine, wrapping many of the tools on this list and letting an AI security analyst connect the results into a report you can act on. Install Clearfront free and run it on yourself, or get the free removal guide to start clearing what it turns up. You can see every source it uses on the tools page.