CISO Tribune

Vendor comparison · 2 companies

Censys vs ZeroFox

Censys supports investigations with real-time Internet infrastructure visibility and historical context. ZeroFox sells a fused cybersecurity platform that brings intelligence, AI, and cybersecurity experts together in one continuous loop of discovery, validation, and disruption. CISO Tribune files both under External attack surface management and Threat intelligence. This page sets the two records side by side: what each sells, where it is based, who owns and funds it, the customers it names and its recent news, each fact numbered to its source.

Change the companies

Up to four companies side by side.

  • Censys
  • ZeroFox
Censys vs ZeroFox: Products, Customers and Funding Compared
CensysCensys supports investigations with real-time Internet infrastructure visibility and historical context.censys.comZeroFoxZeroFox sells a fused cybersecurity platform that brings intelligence, AI, and cybersecurity experts together in one continuous loop of discovery, validation, and disruption.zerofox.com
What it sells
  • Censys Platform[3][8][17][18][19][20][21]Delivers visibility and intelligence for triage, threat investigation, adversary hunting and Internet exposure management.
  • Censys ASM[8]Reveals Internet-facing assets, services and exposures across all 65,535 ports.
  • Adversary Investigation[3][4][5][9][17][19]An add-on module to the Censys Platform to detect, analyze and track threat infrastructure.
  • cencli[20]A command line tool for running search queries, looking up assets and performing aggregations.
  • Cyber Threat Intelligence[1][3][4]Finished intelligence built from Dark Ops, threat channel infiltration, asset fingerprinting, and analyst expertise.
  • Digital Risk Protection[1][2][4][5]Uses threat intelligence to safeguard brands, domains, and executives from threats outside the firewall.
  • HNTR Executive Protection[10]An executive protection solution aimed at impersonation, doxxing, and escalating physical threats.
  • External Attack Surface Management[2][14]Defines and maps an organization's internet-exposed attack surface, identifying known and unknown assets.
  • Mobile App Protection[14]Discovers fraudulent, rogue, or malicious mobile applications impersonating a brand or organization.
  • Credit Card Protection[14]Discovers leaked or stolen credit card numbers and PINs for a single Bank Identification Number.
Categories
Headquarters
Ann Arbor, United States[2][21]Not stated on its pages
Founded
2017[1]Not stated on its pages
Ownership and funding
Not stated on its pagesOwned by Haveli Investments since 2024[2][12]
Named customers
Not stated on its pagesNot stated on its pages
Recent news
  • September 22, 2026Censys announced an expanded global Channel Partner Program and investments to accelerate its channel-first growth strategy.[14]
  • July 22, 2026Censys announced record first half 2026 growth, reflecting growing enterprise adoption of Internet intelligence.[13]
  • July 8, 2026Censys expanded its Internet Map to include real-time DNS visibility.[25]
  • June 18, 2026Censys announced its expansion into security operations, enabling organizations to use its internet intelligence across security workflows.[26]
  • June 18, 2026Censys announced its expansion into security operations, enabling organizations to use its Internet intelligence across security workflows.[12]
Not stated on its pages
G2 and Gartner Peer Insights
  • G2: listed, seen November 10, 2026[6]
  • Gartner Peer Insights: Not stated on its pages
  • G2: listed, seen November 10, 2026[12]
  • Gartner Peer Insights: Not stated on its pages
Who it fits
From its own pages, Censys sells to private and public sector security teams. Censys describes a plan for threat hunting and CTI teams looking to hunt, track and engineer detections for adversary campaigns and infrastructure. Censys describes a plan for enterprises that want to use Censys data across alert triage, IR, threat intel and detection engineering. Censys offers purpose-built internet intelligence with specialized datasets for government specific investigations and exposure management requirements. Censys offers Single Sign-On through a SAML-based integration to Enterprise and Government users.From its own pages, the company sells mainly to security teams, and the CTI Search Portal page says it is built for them. Its social media offering is described as defending organizations on social platforms from impersonation, scams, fraud, and reputational attacks. Its executive offering is aimed at protecting executives from impersonation, doxxing, and escalating physical threats.
Last verified
September 27, 2026September 27, 2026

Where they overlap

  • Censys and ZeroFox are both filed under External attack surface management and Threat intelligence.

Where they differ, field by field

  • Censys's primary category is External attack surface management; ZeroFox's is Digital risk protection.
  • Censys lists Censys Platform, Censys ASM, Adversary Investigation and cencli. ZeroFox lists Cyber Threat Intelligence, Digital Risk Protection, HNTR Executive Protection, External Attack Surface Management, Mobile App Protection and 1 more.
  • Censys is headquartered in Ann Arbor, United States.
  • Censys was founded in 2017.
  • ZeroFox is owned by Haveli Investments, since 2024.

What it sells: Censys

What Censys Platform does[3][8][17][18][19][20][21]
Censys Platform has API endpoints for integrating Platform functionality with a customer tech stack. Censys Platform uses a language called Censys Query Language. Censys Platform includes a web property dataset covering name-based assets on the internet, including websites, APIs and web-based applications.
What Censys ASM does[8]
Censys ASM uses first-party scanning to find Internet-exposed assets, including services on nonstandard ports, self-signed certificates, hosts in residential networks and dangling DNS records. Censys ASM sends alerts on changes such as new hosts and services, open ports and reissued certificates. Censys ranks risks by severity, category and affected asset.
What Adversary Investigation does[3][4][5][9][17][19]
The Adversary Investigation module is an add-on to the Censys Platform for organizations to detect, analyze and track threat infrastructure. Actions that use CensEye to discover related infrastructure for a host, web property or certificate are only available to users with access to the Adversary Investigation module.

What it sells: ZeroFox

What Cyber Threat Intelligence does[1][3][4]
ZeroFox fuses Dark Ops, threat channel infiltration, asset fingerprinting, and analyst expertise to deliver finished intelligence. ZeroFox tracks forums, markets, and chats for chatter, access sales, and stolen data. ZeroFox connects to TIP, SIEM, SOAR, and EDR for automated action.
What Digital Risk Protection does[1][2][4][5]
ZeroFox describes Digital Risk Protection as safeguarding external assets such as brands, domains, and executives across social media, marketplaces, and the surface, deep, and dark web. ZeroFox offers Brand, Domain, Executive, and Social Media Protection.
What HNTR Executive Protection does[10]
ZeroFox detects and removes fake profiles, hijacked accounts, and AI-generated video or audio built to impersonate or discredit executives. ZeroFox tracks dark web forums and marketplaces for exposed home addresses, family details, and leaked executive credentials.

Questions about Censys and ZeroFox

What do Censys and ZeroFox sell?
Censys sells Censys Platform, Censys ASM, Adversary Investigation and cencli. ZeroFox sells Cyber Threat Intelligence, Digital Risk Protection, HNTR Executive Protection, External Attack Surface Management, Mobile App Protection and 1 more.
Are Censys and ZeroFox in the same category?
They share External attack surface management and Threat intelligence. Censys's primary category is External attack surface management and ZeroFox's is Digital risk protection.
Where are Censys and ZeroFox headquartered?
Censys is headquartered in Ann Arbor, United States.
When were Censys and ZeroFox founded?
Censys was founded in 2017.
Who owns Censys and ZeroFox?
ZeroFox is owned by Haveli Investments, since 2024.
Who are Censys and ZeroFox sold to?
From its own pages, Censys sells to private and public sector security teams. From its own pages, the company sells mainly to security teams, and the CTI Search Portal page says it is built for them.
What have Censys and ZeroFox announced recently?
September 22, 2026: Censys announced an expanded global Channel Partner Program and investments to accelerate its channel-first growth strategy.

About Censys

Censys supports investigations with real-time Internet infrastructure visibility and historical context. Censys supports tracking attacker infrastructure and uncovering related assets. Censys supports discovering unknown assets, identifying critical risks and protecting an external attack surface. Censys supports identifying third-party risk by continuously monitoring supplier Internet exposure. Censys names Global 2000 enterprises and governments as the organizations that choose it for Security Operations and Exposure Management. Censys ARC publishes original research covering emerging threats, attacker infrastructure, vulnerabilities and Internet-wide exposure.[8][10]

Censys ASM reveals Internet-facing assets, services and exposures across all 65,535 ports, using the Censys Internet Map. Censys maps the global internet across all 65K ports to show what attackers, customers and regulators can see. Censys ASM uses first-party scanning to find Internet-exposed assets, including services on nonstandard ports, self-signed certificates, hosts in residential networks and dangling DNS records. Censys maps the JavaScript libraries, web technologies and plugins running across an environment, then detects and flags the vulnerabilities and risks present.[8][16]

Censys ASM monitors a surface continuously and sends alerts on changes such as new hosts and services, open ports and reissued certificates. Censys ranks risks by severity, category and affected asset. Censys ASM integrates with ticketing, SIEM, vulnerability management and other tooling to auto-create, route and track remediation tasks. The Censys Assistant takes plain-language questions about an inventory, such as which CVEs affect it or which cloud providers are in use, and generates executive-ready reports on demand.[8]

Censys Platform has API endpoints for integrating Platform functionality with a customer tech stack. Censys Platform uses a language called Censys Query Language. Censys Platform includes a web property dataset covering name-based assets on the internet, including websites, APIs and web-based applications. Collections let users track and monitor the results of a Censys query over time. The Adversary Investigation module is an add-on to the Censys Platform for organizations to detect, analyze and track threat infrastructure. Censys offers CensEye for automated pivoting jobs that find assets related to an IP, web property or certificate. Censys offers the cencli command line tool for running search queries, looking up assets and performing aggregations.[4][9][17][18][19][20]

Censys Platform data can enrich IPs, web properties and certificates in Google SecOps. Censys has an Attack Surface Management (ASM) integration with Google SecOps. Censys integrates natively with many SIEM, SOAR, TIP and other security tools. API access is included across all Censys tiers.[19]

Censys Credits power searches, lookups and other actions within the Censys Platform. Censys sets Starter plans to begin at 500 credits, and Enterprise customers use credits only for API usage. Censys Platform access is organised in Censys Free, Censys Starter, Censys Search and Censys Core tiers. Censys describes a plan for threat hunting and CTI teams looking to hunt, track and engineer detections for adversary campaigns and infrastructure. Censys describes a further plan for enterprises that want to use Censys data across alert triage, IR, threat intel and detection engineering. Censys offers Single Sign-On through a SAML-based integration to Enterprise and Government users. Censys offers purpose-built internet intelligence with specialized datasets for government specific investigations and exposure management requirements.[20]

Censys created fast Internet scanning at the University of Michigan and released the ZMap open source scanner. Censys introduced Censys Search and data downloads, initially scanning 16 popular Internet protocols. Censys evolved from a research project into a free-standing company. Censys architected a new scan engine with proprietary scanning technology. Censys goes to market in Nordics, France, Australia, Singapore, Japan and more. Censys says it empowers private and public sector security teams.[4][5][8][9][10][11][16]

Censys on the record

Sources

Censys full record

  1. [1]Censys introduces the ground truth for internet intelligence the censys internet map 301938734Censys via PR Newswire · prnewswire.com · published September 26, 2023 · Tier A
  2. [2]CareersCensys · censys.com · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  3. [3]Censys | The Authority for Internet Intelligence and InsightsCensys · undated page, accessed October 23, 2026 · Tier A
  4. [4]Platform API Transition GuideCensys · published October 5, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]SAML AuthenticationCensys · undated page, accessed October 23, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]Censys Attack Surface Management Reviews & Product Details - G2G2 · undated page, accessed October 23, 2026 · Tier C
  7. [7]Censys Search - CensysCensys · undated page, accessed November 3, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]Censys | Attack Surface Management | Internet VisibilityCensys · undated page, accessed November 3, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]Adversary Investigation - CensysCensys · undated page, accessed November 3, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]Critical Infrastructure Monitoring - CensysCensys · undated page, accessed November 3, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]Trusted by Global Leaders for VisibilityCensys · undated page, accessed November 3, 2026 · Tier A
  12. [12]Censys Expands Into Security Operations with Internet Intelligence-Powered WorkflowsCensys · published June 18, 2026 · Tier A
  13. [13]Censys Delivers Record First Half 2026 Growth as AI Driven Demand for Internet Intelligence AcceleratesCensys · published July 22, 2026 · Tier A
  14. [14]Censys Transforms Global Channel Program to Accelerate Partner-Led GrowthCensys · published September 22, 2026 · Tier A
  15. [15]Censys Reviews, Ratings & Features 2026 | Gartner Peer InsightsGartner Peer Insights · undated page, accessed November 3, 2026 · Tier C
  16. [16]Censys | External Exposure Management & Attack Surface MappingCensys · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  17. [17]Platform API Transition GuideCensys · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  18. [18]Platform FAQsCensys · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  19. [19]Google SecOps SOAR IntegrationCensys · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  20. [20]Platform CLI ToolCensys · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  21. [21]Pricing | CensysCensys · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  22. [22]Censys Built by Cybersecurity Experts for Real-Time Threat IntelligenceCensys · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  23. [23]Censys Unveils Censys ARC, Formalizing Its Global Internet Threat Research TeamCensys · published March 10, 2026 · Tier A
  24. [24]Censys Powers SOC Modernization with Real-Time Internet Context and Risk ScoringCensys · published April 9, 2026 · Tier A
  25. [25]Censys Expands Its Internet Map to Include DNS IntelligenceCensys · published July 8, 2026 · Tier A
  26. [26]Censys Expands Into Security Operations with Internet Intelligence-Powered WorkflowsCensys · published June 18, 2026 · Tier A

ZeroFox full record

  1. [1]PlatformZeroFox · zerofox.com · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]Haveli completes acquisition of zerofoxZeroFox · zerofox.com · published May 13, 2024 · Tier A
  3. [3]ZeroFox | External Cybersecurity.ZeroFox · undated page, accessed October 30, 2026 · Tier A
  4. [4]External Cybersecurity Platform | ZeroFoxZeroFox · undated page, accessed October 30, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]ZeroFox Digital Risk ProtectionZeroFox · undated page, accessed October 30, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]Takedowns | ZeroFoxZeroFox · undated page, accessed October 30, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]ZeroFox Intelligence Search | ZeroFoxZeroFox · undated page, accessed October 30, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]Compromised Credential Monitoring: Identify credentials leaked onlineZeroFox · undated page, accessed October 30, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]Physical Security Intelligence (PSI) Software | ZeroFoxZeroFox · undated page, accessed October 30, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]Cybersecurity Solutions for Executive Protection | ZerofoxZeroFox · undated page, accessed October 30, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]Social Media Security Protection Software | ZeroFoxZeroFox · undated page, accessed October 30, 2026 · Tier A
  12. [12]ZeroFox Reviews 2026: Details, Pricing, & Features - G2G2 · undated page, accessed October 30, 2026 · Tier C
  13. [13]PII Protect & Removal | ZeroFoxZeroFox · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  14. [14]Pricing | ZeroFoxZeroFox · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  15. [15]ZeroFox Master Customer Agreement | ZeroFoxZeroFox · published December 16, 2025 · Tier A

Spot a factual error? Request a correction.