Masscan vs portwave
Masscan
github.comportwave
github.comSide by side
| Figure | Masscan | portwave |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | — |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | Yes | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 2 | 0 |
| Spec score · Port Scanner Software | 8.7 (#2) | 7.1 (#24) |
| Integrations | The project describes PF_RING DNA support for high-speed packet transmission and says Masscan can use PF_RING ZC when the adapter name indicates it. | The README documents piping subfinder output into portwave and using ProjectDiscovery nuclei for vulnerability scanning when installed. |
| License | Masscan is free software under the GNU Affero General Public License version 3, with no warranty stated in the license notice. | The repository identifies the software as MIT licensed. |
| Purpose | Masscan is an Internet-scale TCP port scanner designed for wide-range scanning of many machines. | Portwave is an IPv4/IPv6 port scanner with HTTP(S) enrichment, SSL reconnaissance, and a nuclei pipeline. |
| Scanning | It supports arbitrary port and address ranges and asynchronous transmission. | It uses adaptive TCP connect scanning and can scan all 65,535 TCP ports when explicitly requested. |
Plans
In their own words
Masscan
Masscan is a free command-line TCP port scanner for scanning many machines across wide address ranges. The project says one machine can transmit 10 million packets per second. It supports asynchronous transmission, arbitrary port and address ranges, and scanning IPv4 and IPv6 together without a separate IPv6 mode. Banner checks cover protocols and services including FTP, HTTP, IMAP4, memcached, POP3, SMTP, SSH, SSL, SMBv1, SMBv2, Telnet, RDP and VNC. Results can be saved as XML, binary, grepable, JSON or list output. Its usage and output are intended to be familiar to Nmap users, with some Nmap-compatible options. Masscan runs on Linux, macOS and Windows and is available for self-hosting. The project describes PF_RING DNA support for high-speed transmission and says it can use PF_RING ZC when the adapter name indicates it. It is free software under the GNU Affero General Public License version 3, whose notice states there is no warranty. Users must specify ports and target IP addresses or simple ranges; DNS names are not accepted. The README warns that its custom TCP/IP stack can conflict with the local stack and describes using a separate source IP or firewalling its source port.