Maltego alternatives in 2026: options for solo investigators and small firms

Short answer: for a solo investigator or small firm whose work ends in a report for a client, DeepState is the strongest Maltego alternative: a desktop case board with an AI assistant that does the research and cites its sources, lookups on domains, IPs, emails and phone numbers with no credits, and a PDF dossier at the end, for $29–$49 per user per month. Stay on Maltego if your work depends on its commercial data pulls. For free, manual mapping, use OSINTracker or Obsidian Canvas; for email, phone and username lookups, OSINT Industries. i2 Analyst's Notebook and Social Links Crimewall are enterprise products sold by quote.

We make DeepState. Facts about other products come from their own sites, checked October 16, 2026; follow the links before you buy.

#Why people look for an alternative

Maltego is built around one idea: start from an entity and run transforms that pull connected entities from data sources onto a graph. That's powerful when the data is what you're paying for. It's a poor fit when most of your time goes into reading filings, court records and posts and writing them up for a client, which describes most small investigation practices.

Price is the other reason. In May 2024 Maltego stopped selling its older Pro and Organization plans. Its current paid plans start at €3,000 per year (Entry) and €7,500 per year per seat (Professional Standard), and searches against its data are metered in monthly credits (pricing). The free Basic plan allows 200 credits a month and 24 results per transform.

#The options at a glance

#DeepState

DeepState is built around the case rather than the graph. People, organizations, events, locations, documents, articles, social posts, crypto wallets and identifiers (domains, IPs, emails, phone numbers, usernames) sit on one canvas with labelled connections, a timeline and narratives. It runs on Windows, macOS and Linux.

#What it does that the others here don't

• An assistant that does the research. Ask it to "find this company's directors and any litigation against them" and it searches the web, reads the pages, checks court records, SEC filings and sanctions lists, and adds linked nodes that cite their sources. Every step is shown and can be undone. It can drive a browser to search sites and fill in forms, and save the steps as a reusable procedure.
• Lookups without credits. Right-click a domain, IP, email or phone number for WHOIS, DNS, IP-owner and email checks, run them across several nodes at once to see what they share, or ask the assistant to chain them.
• More than 70 research tools. US public-records person search, username search across about 480 sites, crypto wallet balances and transactions (Ethereum and 50+ EVM chains, Solana, Bitcoin), the Wayback Machine, historic newspapers, geocoding and maps, YouTube transcripts, and X, Bluesky, Reddit and LinkedIn.
• The report. The dossier builder turns the nodes you choose into a PDF with a sources appendix; the board can also become a slide deck.
• Evidence that holds up. Every page the assistant visits, every screenshot and every download is saved with its SHA-256 in a tamper-evident evidence log that you can verify in one click and export for counsel; dossiers list the captures behind each cited source.
• Your data stays with you. Boards are a file on your machine. Sharing with a colleague is end-to-end encrypted, over your network or a relay that only sees ciphertext. The AI can run fully offline through Ollama if a client requires it.
• Feed monitoring. Follow RSS, Reddit, Bluesky and X sources and pull new items onto the board.

Price: $29/month (Personal, up to five boards, bring your own AI key) or $49/month (Professional, unlimited boards, AI usage included, plus person search and feed monitoring); 14-day free trial of Professional, no card.

Where it isn't the right fit: DeepState doesn't resell commercial datasets or offer a transform marketplace, and it is designed for case-sized boards rather than mapping tens of thousands of infrastructure entities.

#The other options

#Maltego (including the free Basic plan)

If your work depends on Maltego's data, such as commercial identity, breach and infrastructure sources queried straight onto the graph, nothing on this list replaces it. The free Basic plan gives you 200 credits a month, 10,000 entities per graph and 24 results per transform (limits). The desktop app needs a Java runtime; Maltego Cases is cloud storage, and transform queries run through Maltego's infrastructure. Its AI Assistant analyses and reports on the graph within a usage quota, but doesn't research for you. Many DeepState users keep Maltego Basic for occasional data pulls.

#OSINTracker

OSINTracker is a free, well-designed graph tool that runs in the browser and keeps data in local browser storage, with typed entities, dated relationships and exports to HTML, Markdown, CSV and JSON. Everything is entered by hand: it doesn't search, look anything up or write a report.

#Obsidian Canvas

Obsidian is a free notes app with a built-in Canvas, and some investigators build their own case system on top of it. It is private and flexible, and entirely manual: source tracking, timelines and reports are whatever you build yourself.

#OSINT Industries

OSINT Industries checks which platforms an email, phone number or username is registered on, from £19/month for 30 credits. It's a good selector-lookup service, but not a case tool; most users pair it with one.

#Lampyre

Lampyre pairs a desktop client with paid data lookups, from $807/year including the desktop licence. Graphs are capped at 10,000 objects. It's the closest to Maltego's model at a lower price, with the same reliance on credits.

#i2 Analyst's Notebook and Social Links Crimewall

Both are enterprise products sold by quote. i2 Analyst's Notebook is the long-standing standard for charting in law enforcement and fraud, used as Windows desktop software; SL Crimewall is a full platform with case management and AI summaries, as SaaS or on-premise. Neither is a budget alternative. See i2 Analyst's Notebook alternatives.

#SpiderFoot

SpiderFoot automates reconnaissance across hundreds of modules and is free under the MIT licence. Intel 471 acquired it in 2022; the latest release is v4.0, the hosted HX edition no longer appears to be sold separately, and the open-source project has seen little development since. It needs technical setup and isn't a case tool.

#How to choose

• Your cases end in a report for a client (due diligence, background, litigation support, fraud): DeepState.
• You need commercial data pulled onto a graph: Maltego, possibly alongside DeepState for the case and the report.
• You need email, phone and username lookups: OSINT Industries, alongside a case tool.
• Zero budget and happy to do everything by hand: OSINTracker or Obsidian.
• Agency procurement: i2 Analyst's Notebook or Social Links Crimewall.

#Frequently asked questions

#What is the best Maltego alternative for a private investigator?

For a PI or small firm whose work is mostly people, companies, public records and a written report, DeepState is the closest fit: an AI research assistant, lookups on domains, emails and phone numbers without credits, US public-records person search, and PDF dossier reports, for $29–$49 per user per month. Maltego remains the better choice when the job depends on its commercial data sources.

#Is there a free version of Maltego?

Yes. Maltego's Basic plan is free and replaced the old Community Edition. As of October 2026 it includes 200 credits per month, up to 10,000 entities per graph and 24 results per transform.

#What is the best free alternative to Maltego?

For manual relationship mapping, OSINTracker (browser-based, data stays local) and Obsidian Canvas (local Markdown files) are both free. Neither searches or looks anything up for you. SpiderFoot is free and open source for automated reconnaissance but has seen little development since 2022.

#How much does Maltego cost in 2026?

According to Maltego's pricing page in October 2026: Basic is free, Entry is €3,000 per year, Professional Standard is €7,500 per year per seat (up to five users), and Enterprise is quoted by sales. Paid plans include monthly credit allowances.

#What happened to Vortimo?

Vortimo (2019–2021) and its successor OSINT-Tool are discontinued. Their developer, Roelof Temmingh, who also founded Maltego, now builds Ubikron.