OSINT INVESTIGATION TOOLS HEAD-TO-HEAD
Maltego vs Intelligence X (2026)
Maltego and Intelligence X are both serious OSINT tools, but they start investigations from opposite ends. Maltego is a link-analysis platform: give it an entity and it draws the graph of what connects to it, across curated data, commercial sources and 100+ connectors. Intelligence X is a search engine and data archive: give it a selector — an email, domain, IP, Bitcoin address — and it retrieves what its index holds across darknet, leaks, paste sites, whois and historical copies. Mapping relationships versus finding records: different jobs, often done in that order.
Maltego answers 'what is this connected to?'; Intelligence X answers 'where has this appeared?'. Serious investigations ask both questions — which is why the archive feeds the graph in real toolchains, rather than one tool replacing the other.
Last reviewed: October 2026 · Sources listed at the bottom of this page
Quick facts
| Maltego | Intelligence X | |
|---|---|---|
| Model | Visual link-analysis platform — graph first | Search engine and data archive — selector first |
| Products | Maltego Graph, Search, Monitor, Evidence, Cases | intelx.io search, Phonebook, Identity Portal |
| Runs on | Desktop (Windows/Mac/Linux) and browser via Maltego One | Web and APIs only |
| Free tier | Basic Community Edition €0/yr — Maltego ID required | 2 searches/day with no login; 50/day signed up |
| Paid tier | Entry Standard €3,000/yr; Professional Standard €7,500/yr | Researcher €3,000/yr up to Enterprise €20,000/yr — yearly only |
| Signature strength | Mapping who and what connects to an entity | Finding records held on a selector across archives |
Key differences at a glance
- Visual link analysis (graph)Maltego: YesIntelligence X: NoMaltego Graph is the flagship — desktop and browser — for mapping relationships between entities; Intelligence X returns record lists, with no graph view
- Selector-based archive searchMaltego: PartialIntelligence X: YesIntelligence X is built on selector search across its archive; Maltego Search does quick OSINT lookups from an email, alias, phone, name or domain, but is not an archive search
- Darknet and leak data indexingMaltego: PartialIntelligence X: YesIntelligence X indexes Tor, I2P, data leaks and paste sites as core buckets; Maltego reaches dark web data through curated Data Pass sources and connectors rather than indexing an archive itself
- Full-text searchMaltego: Not verifiedIntelligence X: NoIntelligence X states full-text searches are not supported — a selector is required; a full-text search mode is not documented for Maltego on the pages checked
What is Maltego?
Maltego is an OSINT and cyber investigations platform built around visual link analysis. Its flagship, Maltego Graph, lets investigators expand entities — people, domains, companies, digital identifiers — into relationship graphs, on the desktop for large-scale investigations and in the browser via Maltego One with built-in data, map and histogram views and an AI Assistant. Around the graph sit Maltego Search for quick OSINT lookups, Maltego Monitor for real-time social media monitoring, Maltego Evidence for preserving social media evidence, plus Cases and Admin. Data arrives through curated Maltego Data Pass sources, 100+ Connectors driven by the user's own API keys, and a Connector Builder and Transforms SDK for proprietary sources.
What is Intelligence X?
Intelligence X, at intelx.io, is a search engine and data archive — in its own words, it indexes data from public sources and is data agnostic. Its indexed buckets include paste sites (including historical ones), Tor and I2P darknet content, Wikileaks and Cryptome, government sites, data leaks, whois data and the public web, searchable only by selector — an email, domain, IP or CIDR, Bitcoin address, phone number and similar strong identifiers. Full-text search is explicitly not supported. It also keeps historical copies of websites and documents, offers a Phonebook for finding a strong selector from an incomplete one, and sells an Identity Portal for leaked-account and reverse-lookup work on higher tiers. Its own pages conflict on dataset size — 200 billion records on the product page, about 400 billion in an October 2026 blog post — so the honest summary is hundreds of billions claimed.
Maltego vs Intelligence X: feature comparison
Verified against official sources. “Not verified” means we couldn’t confirm it — not that it doesn’t exist.
FEATURE TALLY — FROM THE TABLE BELOW
Maltego
8 yes · 3 partial · 1 no · 3 not verified
Intelligence X
8 yes · 3 partial · 3 no · 1 not verified
A count of the rows in the verified table beneath — not a quality rating. The rows themselves, and what each product does best, matter more than the totals.
| Feature | Maltego | Intelligence X |
|---|---|---|
| Visual link analysis (graph)Maltego Graph is the flagship — desktop and browser — for mapping relationships between entities; Intelligence X returns record lists, with no graph view | Yes | No |
| Selector-based archive searchIntelligence X is built on selector search across its archive; Maltego Search does quick OSINT lookups from an email, alias, phone, name or domain, but is not an archive search | Partial | Yes |
| Darknet and leak data indexingIntelligence X indexes Tor, I2P, data leaks and paste sites as core buckets; Maltego reaches dark web data through curated Data Pass sources and connectors rather than indexing an archive itself | Partial | Yes |
| Full-text searchIntelligence X states full-text searches are not supported — a selector is required; a full-text search mode is not documented for Maltego on the pages checked | Not verified | No |
| Search by email, domain or IPBoth start from strong identifiers: Maltego expands them as graph entities and Search lookups; Intelligence X queries them as selectors | Yes | Yes |
| Lookup from an incomplete identifierIntelligence X's Phonebook finds a strong selector (emails, subdomains, URLs for a domain) when you do not know the full one; no equivalent is documented for Maltego | Not verified | Yes |
| Historical copies and archiveIntelligence X keeps historical copies of websites and documents, Wayback-style; Maltego's Hunchly captures pages from now onward for evidence, not a pre-built historical archive | Partial | Yes |
| Connectors and transforms ecosystemMaltego lists 100+ Connectors using your own API keys, plus a Connector Builder and Transforms SDK; Intelligence X offers documented APIs and a public SDK, including a Maltego transform | Yes | Partial |
| Monitoring and alertsMaltego Monitor watches social platforms in real time with sentiment analysis (Enterprise option); Intelligence X sends email alerts when new results appear for a selector, with allowances by tier | Yes | Yes |
| Evidence preservationMaltego Evidence preserves social media evidence and Hunchly captures pages with chain of custody; Intelligence X lets you view archived material inline and export on paid tiers, without an evidence-preservation product | Yes | Partial |
| Desktop appMaltego Graph (Desktop) runs on Windows, Mac and Linux; no Intelligence X desktop app is mentioned on its official pages | Yes | No |
| Browser-based useMaltego One brings Graph and Search to the browser; Intelligence X is web-first at intelx.io with its Identity Portal on higher tiers | Yes | Yes |
| Mobile appNo iOS or Android app was found for either product on the official pages checked | Not verified | Not verified |
| API accessMaltego documents standard API and SDK options for integrating your own data; Intelligence X documents a Search API (fair-use from the free tier up) and a Leaks API on Identity Portal and Enterprise | Yes | Yes |
| Free use with no signupMaltego requires a Maltego ID even for the free Community Edition; Intelligence X allows 2 selector searches a day logged out, rising to 50 a day with a free account | No | Partial |
Pricing: Maltego vs Intelligence X
Maltego pricing
Pricing is shown in EUR on the official pricing page (USD figures are unverified, so EUR is used here). Basic (Community Edition) is €0/year with Maltego Graph and 200 Maltego Credits per month; Basic+ is €0/year for qualified users with 1,000 credits per month and more curated sources. Entry Standard is €3,000/year, adding Hunchly web capture; Professional Standard, labelled best value, is €7,500/year with unlimited Maltego Search and unlimited out-of-the-box commercial data access. Enterprise is quote-only, with flexible credits and optional Monitor and Evidence.
Intelligence X pricing
Free use is real but capped: 2 selector searches a day with no login, 50 a day with a free signed-up account, and a 7-day free trial (50 a day) for new accounts. Paid licences are yearly only. Researcher is €3,000/year for one user with 200 searches a day; API is €7,000/year with 500 a day; Identity Portal is €10,000/year, adding the identity.intelx.io portal, Leaks API and leaked-account export; Enterprise is €20,000/year for multiple users with 5,000+ searches a day. An Academia tier gives schools and universities 50 searches a day with limited download and export.
Maltego: pros and cons
- Industry-standard visual link analysis for complex cases
- 100+ connectors plus builder and SDK for your own data
- Search, Monitor and Evidence cover the wider workflow
- Free Community Edition to learn on (200 credits/month)
- Desktop and browser Graph, with training and support included
- Real data depth starts at €3,000/yr — the free tier is credit-limited
- A Maltego ID is required, and paid plans are subject to vetting
- No mobile app found on its official pages
- Graph work has a learning curve beside a simple search box
- Advanced Monitor and Evidence are Enterprise options
Intelligence X: pros and cons
- Selector search across darknet, leaks, pastes and whois in one place
- Historical copies and inline viewing of archived documents
- Generous free use: 2 searches/day logged out, 50/day signed up
- Phonebook for working from an incomplete identifier
- Documented APIs, public SDK and a Maltego transform
- No full-text search — you must already know a selector
- Paid licences are yearly only, starting at €3,000/yr
- Dataset size conflicts on its own pages (200B vs 400B records)
- No graph or link-analysis view of results
- No desktop or mobile app mentioned on its official pages
The verdict
Choose Maltego if…
Choose Maltego if your job is mapping relationships — building an evidence-backed graph of people, companies and digital footprints for a case, and pivoting across commercial and curated data to do it.
Choose Intelligence X if…
Choose Intelligence X if your job is finding records — checking whether a selector appears in darknet, leak, paste, whois or historical material, with an archive deep enough that a negative result means something.
Is Maltego better than Intelligence X?
They do different OSINT jobs. Maltego maps relationships: start from one entity and build a graph of what connects to what, across curated and commercial data. Intelligence X finds records: start from a selector and retrieve what the archive holds across darknet, leaks, pastes and historical copies. An investigation often needs both in sequence — find records in Intelligence X, then map the relationships they reveal in Maltego, which is why Intelligence X is also reachable from inside Maltego's ecosystem.
ANOTHER OPTION
Where WorldEye fits
WorldEye is not a third answer to this contest, and it does not pretend to be: it is a live-world viewing and OSINT-search tool, not a Maltego-grade link-analysis platform or an Intelligence X-grade archive. What it does is show the world as it is now — a free 3D globe with no signup, 74,229 public cameras across 105 countries, live flights, ships, weather and events — which can ground an investigation geographically once Maltego or Intelligence X has produced the lead. Its Pro tier is $7.99/week, $13.99/month or $74.99/year.
Live on WorldEye right now
Real cameras from WorldEye's live catalogue — no account, no install. Tap any frame to open that exact camera on the globe.
Full WorldEye head-to-heads: WorldEye vs Maltego · WorldEye vs Intelligence X
Maltego vs Intelligence X: quick answers
Is Maltego the same kind of tool as Intelligence X?
No — they do different jobs. Maltego is a link-analysis platform: it visualises relationships between entities on a graph. Intelligence X is a selector-based search engine and archive: it retrieves records for an email, domain, IP or other identifier. Intelligence X data can also be reached from within Maltego's ecosystem, so the two are often used together.
Is Maltego free?
Partly. The Basic Community Edition is €0/year with Maltego Graph and 200 Maltego Credits per month, and Basic+ is €0/year for qualified users (1,000 credits per month; registration with an official government or organisational email is required to be considered). A Maltego ID is required either way, and paid plans — Entry Standard €3,000/year, Professional Standard €7,500/year — are subject to Maltego's vetting process. Prices here are the EUR figures shown on the official pricing page; USD figures are unverified.
Is Intelligence X free?
Yes, within limits. With no login you get 2 selector searches a day; a free signed-up account gets 50 a day, and new accounts receive a 7-day free trial (50 searches a day, with some data buckets such as leaks and stealer logs reserved for paid users). Paid licences are yearly only: Researcher €3,000/year, API €7,000/year, Identity Portal €10,000/year and Enterprise €20,000/year.
Can Intelligence X do full-text search?
No. Intelligence X states plainly that full-text searches are not supported — you search for a selector such as a domain, email address, IP address or Bitcoin address. If you only have a partial identifier, its Phonebook service is designed to help you find the strong selector first.
How big is the Intelligence X dataset?
Intelligence X claims hundreds of billions of records, but its own pages disagree on the exact figure: the product page says more than 200 billion records, while an official blog post dated 23 October 2026 puts the dataset at about 400 billion. We do not quote a single hard number because the official sources conflict.
Which works on desktop, Maltego or Intelligence X?
Neither replaces the other. Maltego Graph is included in every Maltego plan, on desktop and in the browser via Maltego One. Intelligence X is web and APIs only, but it is also available as an integration within investigation toolchains — including a Maltego transform via its public SDK — so archive results can feed graph work.
How we researched this comparison
Every row in the table above was checked against Maltego’s and Intelligence X’s official sites, documentation or published pricing — the sources are listed at the bottom of this page, and the comparison was last reviewed in October 2026. Where a capability couldn’t be confirmed from an official source, it is marked “Not verified” rather than guessed.
This page is published by WorldEye, so the head-to-head above is kept deliberately neutral: each product’s strengths are stated in its own terms, and WorldEye appears only in the labelled “another option” section. WorldEye’s own figures there are counted, not estimated — 74,229 public cameras in its live directory across 105 countries, and a free map (flights, satellites, ships, weather, earthquakes, wildfires, cameras and satellite imagery) with an optional Pro tier at $7.99/week, $13.99/month or $74.99/year.
Products change. If you spot a row that has gone stale, the sources below show exactly what each claim rests on.