PII Crawler

Local, air-gapped desktop and CLI scanner that finds SSNs and 30+ PII types in files and databases

ToolData Discovery & ClassificationSelf-hosted

Pricing: $497 one-time (unlimited users, machines and scans; no renewals). 7-day fully functional trial, no credit card or account. 14-day refund.

Reviewed by the Cyber Vendor Guide editorial team against the public sources cited below · Last reviewed August 2026 · How we review listings

What is PII Crawler?

PII Crawler is a desktop and command-line scanner from Eligian Labs LLC (Washington, USA) that finds unencrypted personal data in files, network shares and databases on the customer's own hardware. According to the vendor site it detects 30+ PII types (SSN, DOB, names, addresses, phone, email, credit card, IBAN, passport and others) using pattern matching plus named-entity recognition, reads text in images inside PDFs via OCR, and samples Postgres, MySQL and SQL Server tables in memory. The vendor's security page documents that no file contents or matches are ever transmitted and that all four optional endpoints (licence registration, update check, error reporting, UI analytics) can be disabled with an --air-gapped flag or offline licence token. It ships for macOS (Apple Silicon), Windows x64 and Linux x64, exports JSON and CSV reports aimed at GDPR Article 30 and CCPA records, and is sold as a one-time $497 licence with a 7-day full trial.

Best for: Small security or compliance teams that need to inventory PII on file shares, mailboxes and databases without sending data to a cloud DLP service.
Pros
  • One-time $497 licence covering unlimited users, machines and scans, rather than a subscription (vendor pricing page)
  • Security page enumerates every outbound endpoint and how to disable all of them; file contents and matches are never transmitted (piicrawler.com/security)
  • Broad format coverage including OCR of images in PDFs, Office and OLE files, archives, mail files, and in-memory database sampling (vendor docs)
  • CLI with JSON/CSV output and exit codes for CI/CD pipelines (vendor FAQ)
  • Product and company have a verifiable history back to 2023: WHOIS, Wayback captures, eligian.com and the Washington LLC filing
Things to check
  • No independent reviews or third-party evaluations found on G2, Capterra, Product Hunt, Reddit or Hacker News
  • The default install registers the licence with api.eligian.com; fully air-gapped use requires the --offline-license token or --air-gapped flag (vendor security page)
  • Compliance wording on the homepage ("SOC2 evidence", "HIPAA-aligned") is not backed by a linked audit report
  • Terms and Privacy name the LLC but do not state a registered address or governing jurisdiction
  • Small independent vendor; support is email-only

Reported in public reviews and vendor documentation. See sources below.

Key Features

Detects 30+ PII types: SSN, email, name, address, phone, IP, DOB, credit card, IBAN, passport, driver's licence, AWS credentials, US tax forms
Scans PDFs with OCR on embedded images, .docx/.xlsx/.pptx and legacy OLE, streamed CSV of any size, .zip/.tar.gz/.7z archives, and mbox/.pst/.eml/.msg mail files
Samples Postgres, MySQL and SQL Server in memory over a direct connection
Scans SMB and NFS network shares, with guides for Gmail and IMAP mailbox scanning
Shows surrounding match context; false-positive verdicts persist across reruns at file or folder scope
CLI emits JSON and CSV with --exit-code-on for CI/CD pipelines
Air-gapped mode: --air-gapped disables licence, update, error and analytics endpoints; offline licence token for fleets
Code-signed binaries (macOS Developer ID, Windows Authenticode, Linux GPG) with published SHA-256 hashes
Custom regex rules, exclusion patterns, proximity groups, watch mode and policies
macOS Apple Silicon, Windows x64 and Linux x64; desktop GUI and CLI

Are you PII Crawler? Improve this listing with screenshots, case studies and more.

Quick Info
Pricing$497 one-time (unlimited users, machines and scans; no renewals). 7-day fully functional trial, no credit card or account. 14-day refund.
ModelOne-time perpetual licence with free trial
Founded2023
CloudNo
Self-HostedYes

Last updated: Aug 16, 2026