The internet is packed with valuable public data—you just need to know where to find it.
OSINT tools help you dig through this data to find exactly what you need, from company records to social media conversations.
You can use them to investigate security threats, analyze public sentiment, and spot important trends.
We’ve tested dozens of OSINT tools and put together this guide to the very best ones for 2025.
Whether you're a security analyst, researcher, or business owner, you'll find the perfect software for your needs.
Open-source intelligence tools (OSINT) are software that helps you collect and analyze information from publicly available sources.
Like company websites, social media posts, news articles, government databases, and forums.
You can use them to scan and organize multiple sources at once instead of spending hours on manual research.
OSINT software can aid various teams and needs, whether you’re running a business, working in IT, or doing research.
Here’s how:
Let’s look at each tool in detail.
The OSINT solution by Talkwalker and Hootsuite scans millions of online sources to detect potential threats, track brand mentions, and analyze public sentiment.
It monitors an impressive 150M+ websites and 30+ social networks in 187 languages. It also alerts you to relevant content and emerging issues in real time.
And here’s the exciting bit.
This OSINT software goes beyond simple monitoring. It uses AI to analyze sentiment and predict how situations might develop.
For example, it can detect growing negative sentiment around certain topics. It will then forecast which discussions might escalate into larger issues within the next 90 days.
It also offers visual intelligence capability.
The platform identifies objects, logos, and even specific individuals in images and videos across social media, even when there's no text mentioning them.
Maltego is an investigation tool that visualizes connections between people, companies, and online data points.
Think of it as creating an interactive map of connections that would be impossible to see when looking at data separately.
It serves cybersecurity teams and fraud analysts to research suspicious activities and map out the complete attack surface of a target.
For example, analysts can input a suspicious email address in the tool when investigating a potential cybercrime.
Maltego will then automatically reveal all connected social media accounts, websites, other email addresses, and business registrations tied to that target.
OSINT Industries is a real-time lookup tool that shows which online accounts are tied to an email, phone number, username, or crypto wallet.
It helps with tracking fraud, researching someone before a meeting, digging into public records, and running investigations.
For example, type in an email address and instantly see connected accounts on platforms like Instagram, Telegram, CashApp, Airbnb, and more.
You can even spot breached data, map digital footprints, and view recent activity over time.
Intelligence X is a search engine that finds and archives data from public sources, the dark web, and historical records.
It uses specific identifiers, such as email addresses, domains, cryptocurrency addresses, and phone numbers, to find information.
Why could this tool be useful for your OSINT needs?
Because it can search across multiple hard-to-access sources simultaneously and find information typically hidden from regular search engines.
For example, it can track cryptocurrency transactions, monitor dark web mentions, or investigate data breaches by searching through historical data leaks.
Crimewall by Social Links is an investigation tool that collects data from over 500 open sources, including social media, messaging apps, blockchains, and dark web content.
This OSINT tool also offers automated data processing and flexible visualization options.
For example, you can automatically collect all relevant social media profiles, dark web mentions, and blockchain transactions.
You can then visualize how they're connected (with graphs, tables, maps, etc.) and collaborate on this analysis in real time.
Liferaft is a threat intelligence tool that detects physical security risks and threats.
It monitors social media, blogs, forums, deep web, and dark web sources to identify potential risks to business operations, facilities, or personnel.
For example, imagine someone planning a protest near your company's location or discussing potential threats to your executives. Liferaft will detect and alert you to these risks.
Its key feature is geographical awareness—the platform can visualize your physical assets (like offices or warehouses) on a map and correlate nearby threats.
Shodan is a search engine for Internet-connected devices. It covers everything from servers and webcams to industrial control systems and IoT devices.
It can even find devices most people don't realize are connected to the Internet.
For example, the tool can discover industrial control systems in power plants, unsecured security cameras, or exposed databases.
Organizations use it to monitor their network exposure and ensure their devices aren't accidentally exposed to the Internet.
It also helps researchers analyze global technology trends.
Paliscope is an investigation tool that helps analyze digital evidence from various online sources.
It documents how and when digital evidence was collected, making sure it can be used in legal proceedings.
When an investigator finds something important online, like a social media post or message, Paliscope automatically records this data.
For example, it tracks who captured it and when, and proves it hasn't been altered since collection.
Hunchly is an automated web investigation tool that records everything you see during your online research.
Unlike traditional OSINT tools that actively search for information, Hunchly works in the background while you browse.
It automatically captures every webpage you visit, complete with timestamps and digital signatures to prove authenticity.
This works great for tracking information that might be deleted later or when you need to prove how you found certain content for legal purposes.
Babel Street’s OSINT tool analyzes content across over 200 languages to access identity information and spot potential threats.
It uses AI to find connections in multilingual data from social media, the deep web, and public records.
This is especially useful when you need to build a comprehensive intelligence picture, considering cultural and linguistic variations in how names and identities are recorded.
This makes Babel a great tool for organizations with international operations.
PimEyes is a facial recognition search engine that finds where a person's face appears across the internet.
It can be useful for both individuals and organizations when it comes to tracking and removing unwanted photos.
It uses AI to find photos containing the same face, even in different contexts or backgrounds.
For example, it can find photos of a person even if they have a different hairstyle, are in a different location, or the photo has been modified.
OpenSanctions consolidates data from 245 global sources about sanctioned entities, politically exposed persons, and entities of criminal interest.
It creates a de-duplicated dataset by combining official sanctions lists, PEP data, and watchlists from around the world.
You can use this tool to investigate both people and companies.
Google Dorks is a technique that uses advanced search operators to find specific types of information indexed by Google.
It means using specialized commands and filters to find information that might not be easily visible through normal browsing, like exposed server configurations and ensitive documents,
For example, with the search query site:example.com filetype:pdf confidential , you could find PDF files containing the word "confidential" on a specific website.
All you need to do is type it in a search engine (Google, Bing, or others) and add the target domain.
Here are other operators you can use:
Here are other OSINT tools you can check for more specific use cases.
You can also find more OSINT tools for various needs using Osint Framework. It’s a website that organizes links to different online OSINT tools and resources.
OSINT tools are essential for anyone looking to gather and analyze public information.
Here’s a recap of the top platforms you can use:
We picked tools based on their online reviews, industry feedback, and overall performance.
Our team members spent a lot of time investigating and checking each of them.
We also focused on covering various use cases and keeping this list diverse.
Pretty much anything publicly available online—social media posts, company websites, government databases, news articles, forums, and even dark web sources.
This information must be legally accessible to anyone without special permission.
Yet, you might not be able to collect it without specialized software.
Yes, as long as you're accessing publicly available information.
However, how you use this sensitive information also matters.
Many organizations have policies about OSINT use, and some tools require proper licensing or authorization.
The most common OSINT use cases are:
Each OSINT software functions in its unique way based on the platform you choose.
For example, some of them are web-based while others have a desktop version and require installation on Windows or Linux.
Many OSINT tools, especially those on GitHub, also function via the command line. These often require some technical knowledge (e.g., Python) to set up and use.