Maltego is the industry-standard visual link analysis tool for OSINT investigators, law enforcement, and intelligence professionals. Founded in 2008 by Paterva in South Africa, it provides a graph-based interface for exploring relationships between entities. MAGO is a domain intelligence platform with automated reconnaissance workflows. Both serve the OSINT community, but they occupy very different roles in the analyst's toolkit.
What Maltego Does
Maltego is a desktop application built around a graph-based investigation canvas. You drop an entity (domain, IP, email, person, organization) onto the canvas and run "transforms" that query data sources and add related entities with their connections. The power is in visualization: Maltego makes hidden relationships visible by rendering complex link analysis as interactive graphs.
Maltego's Transform Hub connects to over 100 data providers including PassiveTotal, VirusTotal, Shodan, Have I Been Pwned, and social media platforms. The commercial editions (Maltego Classic and Maltego XL) support large-scale investigations with thousands of entities. Maltego is widely used in law enforcement, fraud investigation, and corporate intelligence.
What MAGO Does
MAGO is a purpose-built domain intelligence platform that automates the reconnaissance workflow. Rather than manual transform execution on a graph canvas, MAGO chains DNS enumeration, subdomain discovery, WHOIS correlation, certificate transparency analysis, HTTP header auditing, technology fingerprinting, and threat intelligence lookups into automated pipelines that produce structured intelligence reports.
MAGO focuses on speed and actionability for domain-centric investigations. Where Maltego enables open-ended exploration across any entity type, MAGO produces a complete domain intelligence report in minutes with severity ratings and remediation guidance.
Feature Comparison
| Feature | MAGO | Maltego |
|---|---|---|
| Primary focus | Domain intelligence | Visual link analysis |
| Interface | Web dashboard + reports | Desktop graph canvas |
| Investigation model | Automated pipelines | Manual transform execution |
| Entity types | Domains, IPs, infrastructure | Domains, IPs, people, orgs, social, phone, email |
| Data sources | Curated domain-focused | 100+ via Transform Hub |
| Visualization | Map + entity graph | Full graph analysis |
| Subdomain discovery | Yes (automated) | Via transforms |
| Header auditing | Yes (OWASP grading) | No (not built-in) |
| Technology detection | Yes | Via transforms |
| Collaboration | Team features | Maltego collaboration server |
| Report generation | Automated (HTML/PDF) | Manual (screenshot/export) |
| Deployment | Cloud SaaS | Desktop application |
Pricing
| Plan | MAGO | Maltego |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier | 5 scans/month | Maltego CE (limited transforms) |
| Individual | $49/mo | $999/yr (Maltego Classic) |
| Professional | $149/mo | $1,999/yr (Maltego XL) |
| Enterprise | Custom | Custom (Maltego Enterprise) |
Pros and Cons
Maltego Pros
- Industry-standard visual link analysis trusted by law enforcement
- Graph-based canvas reveals non-obvious entity relationships
- 100+ data providers via Transform Hub
- Handles any entity type -- people, organizations, social media, phone numbers
- Supports large-scale investigations with thousands of entities
Maltego Cons
- Desktop-only application with no web interface
- Expensive -- $999/yr minimum for useful functionality
- Manual workflow -- each transform must be selected and executed
- No automated domain intelligence pipelines
- No built-in security scoring or header auditing
- Steep learning curve for new users
MAGO Pros
- Automated domain intelligence with zero manual steps
- Web-based -- no desktop installation required
- Significantly lower price point ($49/mo vs $999/yr)
- Built-in header auditing with OWASP compliance grading
- Produces actionable reports with remediation guidance automatically
MAGO Cons
- No visual link analysis or graph canvas
- Limited to domain and infrastructure entities
- No Transform Hub ecosystem for extending data sources
- Less useful for non-domain investigations (people, social, fraud)
The Verdict
Maltego and MAGO serve fundamentally different workflows. Maltego is an investigation platform for analysts who need to explore complex relationships between diverse entity types -- it is irreplaceable for fraud investigations, law enforcement cases, and deep-dive intelligence work. MAGO is a domain intelligence automation tool that produces actionable security reports without manual intervention. If your work involves exploring complex entity relationships across multiple domains, Maltego is the tool. If you need fast, automated domain attack surface intelligence with clear remediation steps, MAGO delivers that at a fraction of the cost.
See Your Domain Through MAGO
Run a free domain intelligence scan and see how MAGO compares to Maltego.