Anti-Malware · head-to-head
MalDatabase vs URLScan.io
MalDatabase distributes daily-refreshed malware datasets and threat-intelligence feeds — file hashes, behavioral sandbox data, and contacted-domain lists — for use in research and machine-learning training sets. A live call to its real download host, api.maldatabase.com/download, with an Authorization header returned a plain-text 400 error rather than a CORS-enabled response, reconfirming API-key auth over HTTPS and resolving cors to no. Its published plans run from a free 50-samples/day researcher tier up to a $49.99/month Unlimited plan covering 2,000–2,500 samples/day.
urlscan.io submits URLs to a real, sandboxed browser and publishes the resulting screenshot, DOM, requested domains, and detected technologies, plus a searchable archive of past scans, all as JSON. A live unauthenticated GET against its search endpoint succeeded immediately (returning IP-scoped X-Rate-Limit headers), and a follow-up OPTIONS preflight returned Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *, resolving cors to yes and confirming HTTPS; submitting new scans instead requires an API-Key header. Public scanning is free within per-minute/hour/day rate limits, with a paid urlscan Pro tier for vetted researchers needing deeper private search.
| MalDatabase | URLScan.io | |
|---|---|---|
| Authentication | API Key | API Key |
| Pricing | freemium | freemium |
| Formats | JSON, CSV | JSON |
| CORS | no | yes |
| HTTPS | Yes | Yes |
URLScan.io supports CORS, while MalDatabase doesn't — pick URLScan.io for direct browser calls.