DeepState vs Maltego: which fits a small investigation practice?

Short answer: for a solo investigator or small firm, DeepState does more of the actual job for far less: an AI assistant that researches open sources and cites what it finds, lookups on domains, IPs, emails and phone numbers with no credits, documents, posts and a timeline on the same board, and a PDF dossier at the end, for $29–$49 per user per month with the case stored on your own machine. Maltego (€3,000–€7,500+ per year for paid plans) is the better choice when the work depends on its commercial data sources or on mapping very large infrastructure graphs.

We make DeepState. Maltego facts come from Maltego's own pricing and documentation pages, checked October 16, 2026.

#The difference in one line

Maltego is a graph you feed with data: you run transforms that pull connected entities from data sources. DeepState is a case you build with an assistant: people, companies, events, documents, posts and identifiers on one canvas, with an assistant that does the reading and a report at the end.

#Side by side

*Person search and feed monitoring are in DeepState Professional.

Sources: Maltego pricing, products and plans, Basic/Community limits, desktop requirements, AI Assistant.

#Why small practices choose DeepState

Most of the work is reading, and the assistant does it. A typical file is corporate registries, court records, news, posts and filings. In Maltego you still read those yourself and add what matters. In DeepState you can ask the assistant to find a company's directors and any litigation against them; it searches, reads, and adds the people, companies and cases as linked nodes, each citing its source. You see every step and can undo any of them.

The case, not just the graph. Documents, articles and social posts are nodes alongside the entities they mention, with dates on a timeline and narratives that group evidence into storylines. Nothing lives in a separate folder you have to reconcile later.

The output is the report. The dossier builder turns the nodes you select into a PDF with a sources appendix, ready for a client or counsel. In Maltego, the output is the graph.

The evidence is kept as you go. Every page the assistant reads, every screenshot and every download is saved with its SHA-256 in a tamper-evident evidence log. Verify it in one click, export it with a SHA256SUMS file anyone can check, and the dossier lists the captures behind its sources. With Maltego, evidence capture means its separate Evidence product or Hunchly.

No meter running. WHOIS, DNS, IP-owner and email checks run from a right-click as often as you need; run them across a selection to see what several nodes share.

Your client's data stays on your machine. Boards, documents and media are stored locally. When clients or counsel ask where their case data is held, the answer is "on my computer"; sharing with a colleague is end-to-end encrypted, and the AI can run fully offline.

The price. A year of DeepState Professional is about $588 per user. Maltego's cheapest paid plan is €3,000 a year.

#When Maltego is the better choice

• The data is the job. If your work depends on commercial identity, breach or infrastructure datasets queried straight onto a graph, Maltego's Data Pass and transforms are what you're paying for, and DeepState doesn't resell those datasets.
• Infrastructure at scale. Expanding one domain into hundreds of hosts, certificates and IPs is what Maltego's graph was built for.
• Your team or client already standardizes on it.

Plenty of investigators use both: Maltego (often the free Basic plan) for specific data pulls, and DeepState for the case and the report. Identifiers found in Maltego can be added to a DeepState board and pivoted on there.

#Frequently asked questions

#Is DeepState cheaper than Maltego?

Yes. As of October 2026, DeepState costs $29 or $49 per user per month (about $348 or $588 per year), with no credits for built-in lookups. Maltego's paid plans start at €3,000 per year (Entry) and €7,500 per year per seat (Professional Standard), with monthly credit allowances. Maltego's free Basic plan includes 200 credits a month.

#Does DeepState have transforms like Maltego?

It has lookups you run from a node (WHOIS, DNS, IP owner, email checks) that can be chained across many nodes, plus an AI assistant with more than 70 research tools covering the web, court records, SEC filings, sanctions lists, archives, social platforms, username search and blockchains. It does not include commercial datasets or a third-party transform marketplace.

#Does Maltego store my investigation data in the cloud?

Maltego desktop graphs can be saved locally, but Maltego Cases is described by Maltego as cloud-based case storage, and transform queries run through Maltego's infrastructure. DeepState stores boards, documents and media on your own machine and only syncs, end-to-end encrypted, if you share a board.

#Can I use DeepState on a Mac?

Yes. DeepState runs natively on macOS (Apple Silicon and Intel), Windows and Linux, with no Java runtime.

#Which is better for a private investigator?

For PIs whose cases are mostly people, companies, court and public records and a written report, DeepState fits better and costs far less. For investigators who rely on commercial data pulls or deep infrastructure mapping, Maltego's data is the deciding factor, and many use both.