Nuclei is an open-source vulnerability scanner developed by ProjectDiscovery. It uses YAML-based templates to send targeted requests and detect vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, and exposures across web applications and infrastructure. MAGO is a passive domain intelligence platform. Both serve security teams, but at different stages of the assessment workflow.
What Nuclei Does
Nuclei is a fast, template-based vulnerability scanner. Its community maintains over 8,000 detection templates covering CVEs, misconfigurations, exposed panels, default credentials, technology detection, and more. You point Nuclei at a list of targets and it runs relevant templates, reporting any matches. The template system makes it easy to write custom detection logic without complex scripting.
Nuclei is part of ProjectDiscovery's broader toolkit that includes subfinder (subdomain enumeration), httpx (HTTP probing), and katana (web crawling). Together, these tools form a complete reconnaissance-to-vulnerability-scanning pipeline that is widely used in bug bounty hunting and penetration testing.
What MAGO Does
MAGO focuses on passive domain intelligence rather than active vulnerability scanning. It chains DNS enumeration, subdomain discovery, WHOIS correlation, certificate transparency analysis, HTTP header auditing, technology fingerprinting, and threat intelligence lookups into automated workflows. MAGO identifies security issues through passive analysis rather than active probing -- for example, detecting missing security headers by making standard HTTP requests rather than sending exploit payloads.
Where Nuclei tells you "this specific CVE is exploitable on this endpoint," MAGO tells you "this domain has 47 subdomains, 3 with missing HSTS headers, 2 with outdated TLS, and 1 flagged in threat intelligence feeds." Different depth, different breadth.
Feature Comparison
| Feature | MAGO | Nuclei |
|---|---|---|
| Approach | Passive intelligence | Active vulnerability scanning |
| Authorization required | No | Yes (sends exploit-like requests) |
| Vulnerability detection | Passive indicators only | 8,000+ detection templates |
| CVE detection | Via threat intel correlation | Direct template-based detection |
| Subdomain discovery | Yes (built-in) | No (use subfinder separately) |
| DNS analysis | Full enumeration | No |
| Header auditing | Yes (OWASP grading) | Via templates |
| Technology detection | Yes | Via templates |
| WHOIS analysis | Yes | No |
| Certificate transparency | Yes | No |
| Threat intelligence | OTX, ThreatFox, URLhaus | No |
| Report generation | Automated (HTML/PDF) | JSON/markdown output |
| Custom templates | No | YAML template system |
Pricing
| Plan | MAGO | Nuclei |
|---|---|---|
| Free/OSS | 5 scans/month | Free (open-source) |
| Individual | $49/mo | Free |
| Team | $149/mo | ProjectDiscovery Cloud from $100/mo |
| Enterprise | Custom | ProjectDiscovery Enterprise (custom) |
Pros and Cons
Nuclei Pros
- 8,000+ community vulnerability detection templates
- Direct CVE and misconfiguration detection with proof
- Open-source with active community
- Fast -- can scan thousands of hosts in minutes
- YAML templates are easy to write and share
- Part of the ProjectDiscovery ecosystem (subfinder, httpx, katana)
Nuclei Cons
- Active scanning requires authorization
- Generates detectable traffic that may trigger WAF/IDS
- No domain intelligence -- focuses on vulnerability validation only
- No DNS analysis, WHOIS, or certificate transparency features
- Requires target list -- does not discover assets on its own
- Output is findings-focused, not intelligence-focused
MAGO Pros
- Fully passive with no authorization concerns
- Complete domain intelligence beyond just vulnerabilities
- Discovers assets (subdomains, infrastructure) automatically
- DNS, WHOIS, certificates, and threat intelligence in one workflow
- Actionable reports with severity ratings and remediation
MAGO Cons
- Cannot confirm exploitable vulnerabilities
- No CVE-specific detection templates
- Less useful for active penetration testing workflows
- Cannot replace active vulnerability scanning for compliance
The Verdict
Nuclei and MAGO belong in different phases of the security assessment lifecycle. MAGO excels at the reconnaissance and intelligence phase: understanding what a domain exposes, its infrastructure topology, and its passive security posture. Nuclei excels at the vulnerability validation phase: confirming specific CVEs, misconfigurations, and exploitable conditions on known targets. The optimal workflow uses MAGO first to map the attack surface and identify targets, then Nuclei to validate specific vulnerabilities on those targets with proper authorization.
See Your Domain Through MAGO
Run a free domain intelligence scan and see how MAGO compares to Nuclei.