WhatsMyName vs SpiderFoot
WhatsMyName
WhatsMyName is a community-maintained dataset of more than 700 websites and the rules for checking whether a username is registered on each, published under a Creative Commons BY-SA 4.0 licence. Other OSINT and digital-footprint tools build on it, and whatsmyname.app is a free browser-based tool built directly on the dataset that needs no installation. The project has been on GitHub since 2015.
Pros
- Free to use in the browser with no installation
- Open dataset other tools can reuse
- Maintained by the community since 2015
Things to check
- Checks whether an account exists; it does not build a profile
- Coverage depends on community updates to the site rules
Pricing: Free. Dataset licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
SpiderFoot
SpiderFoot is an open-source (MIT) tool that automates OSINT collection for threat intelligence and for mapping an organisation's attack surface. Given a target such as a domain, IP address, email address or name, it runs over 200 modules against data sources and correlates the results, using a YAML-configurable correlation engine with 37 pre-defined rules. It runs as a self-hosted web application or from the command line, supports Docker deployment, can search the dark web through Tor, and can call other tools such as Nmap and DNSTwist. The project has been on GitHub since 2012.
Pros
- Free and open source under the MIT licence
- Broad automated collection from one scan
- Self-hosted, so scan data stays on your own infrastructure
Things to check
- Self-hosted: you install, run and maintain it
Pricing: Free and open source (MIT).