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Recorded Future vs VirusTotal comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 3, 2026

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Recorded Future
Ranking in Threat Intelligence Platforms (TIP)
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
18
Ranking in other categories
Digital Risk Protection (1st)
VirusTotal
Ranking in Threat Intelligence Platforms (TIP)
6th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
Anti-Malware Tools (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2026, in the Threat Intelligence Platforms (TIP) category, the mindshare of Recorded Future is 6.0%, down from 15.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VirusTotal is 3.9%, down from 5.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Threat Intelligence Platforms (TIP) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Recorded Future6.0%
VirusTotal3.9%
Other90.1%
Threat Intelligence Platforms (TIP)
 

Featured Reviews

Viral Shaa - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Security Analyst at Eos Energy Enterprises, Inc.
Intelligence-led security has transformed alert triage and now prioritizes energy sector threats
For the threat landscape, Recorded Future has a nice dashboard and reporting feature, though there is always an opportunity to improve how we visualize the high-severity sectors. It requires tuning to avoid alert fatigue, especially in high-threat environments like energy, where many threats seem relevant. Some advanced intelligence features require additional licensing, which can significantly increase costs. While Recorded Future provides strong IT-focused intelligence, OT and ICS-specific intelligence, which is improving, still requires supplemental sources for full coverage. New users or analysts newly onboarded to the team may need additional training to navigate the platform effectively. If we were to upgrade to a Tier 1 plan or an additional licensing plan, it should include advanced intelligence feeds that require licensing upgrades to unlock those features. Although Recorded Future is best in breed in the market, the company should consider lowering prices to be more accessible for mid-sized organizations where budgeting is a main concern.
reviewer2588199 - PeerSpot reviewer
Security Specialist at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Improves security alerts and analysis with comprehensive insights
I would like to see improvements in the score consistency and accuracy. VirusTotal should add more details like those from competitors such as URL Void or Symantec URL Checker, which show the category of websites. The addition of a file selection option to analyze files would also enhance the service.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"As a threat intelligence tool, it's very helpful."
"Recorded Future has some important strengths. It has a long history of success in the market and is known for excellent threat intelligence. Its team is skilled at using AI to search for and report on threats. For many years, it was seen as the best in the industry."
"The solution is diverse and provides me with a lot of different mechanisms for evaluation."
"The intel that they were providing us over the emails was very good. If it found any hashtag in our organization's name on the dark web, a rogue IP, or a marketplace, it would send us an email and notify us that this is being mentioned, and if we want, they can take some action."
"The tool can integrate with a lot of security control and proactive protection devices."
"The most valuable feature is Recorded Future's protection of exposed customer data on the hardware side."
"I have seen a return on investment as I explained earlier, it reduces the investigation time from days to minutes, and that is the biggest ROI; on a team of ten people that use it, one request can take you from three days to minutes."
"The tool is helpful in vulnerability assessment of zero-day vulnerabilities and phishing domains. The solution provides information on any domains of the organization that has undergone phishing or any other cyberattacks."
"It can scan the dark web and find if an email ID has been compromised. This is another area that we have not explored yet."
"The most valuable feature is the worldwide malware information database."
"It allows us to see if there have been previous reports on certain indicators of compromise, providing insights from other security professionals."
"The product is easy to use with coding, such as Python or Java, via its API."
"With VirusTotal, I can check for any hash, malware, file, domain, IP URL, or malicious URL, and Kaspersky stays clean."
"It is quite simple for anyone if they just want to check some suspicious URLs."
"VirusTotal provides 95% to 98% accurate information."
"I have never had any problems with stability or bugs while using VirusTotal."
 

Cons

"Some advanced intelligence features require additional licensing, which can significantly increase costs."
"Recorded Future is a very expensive solution, and its pricing could be improved."
"The solution would benefit from introducing automation."
"The tool can be pricey, especially for smaller companies."
"Lacks sufficient visibility of malware and international APT attacks."
"The customer support is frustrating and not efficient. They always request logs and screenshots that seem irrelevant."
"When you add one website to Recorded Future, it should automatically call all other websites and social media platforms."
"We can get the data of different malware active throughout the globe, but it would be good if we can do sandboxing of a file. For example, on Any Run, we can perform sandboxing of malware along with their intel about a particular file or hash. It would be great if they have a feature like that."
"The platform could improve in the areas of endpoints and networks."
"They can improve the telemetry. Whenever we handle a sample, they cannot provide any information about a victim."
"VirusTotal has predefined reports, but there is a lot of manual effort involved."
"VirusTotal is hard to understand because you need to know Google Docs to create queries, and it doesn't have documentation for that."
"VirusTotal needs better advertisement and promotion, especially in the Middle East, since it is not yet widely recognized or popular in that region."
"There is room for improvement, particularly in making some of the most useful features more accessible in the non-paid version."
"There should be room for improvement, particularly in the API side of things."
"I would like to see an improved user interface and some automation."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The biggest disadvantage of Recorded Future is the cost here in Eastern Europe. The solution is correctly priced for big companies who have the money to invest in such solutions. Also, the solution is useless on its own, which means that you have to invest in other solutions with which Recorded Future can be integrated. At present, Recorded Future can cost 60,000 euros per year. I am able to offer my clients a 5% to 10% discount, but in this region, the cost is still prohibitive even with the discount. If Recorded Future were more flexible in terms of price, there would be better sales opportunities in Europe and Eastern Europe, in particular, because we have more small- and medium-sized companies here."
"I would rate the solution’s pricing a seven out of ten."
"There appear to be up to five different levels, with the most expensive version costing around $95,000 to $105,000 a year for subscription services."
"The price of the solution is worth it. The overall performance of the solution outweighs the cost."
"The pricing is very economical."
"The pricing is reasonable."
"VirusTotal is an expensive solution."
"We are using VirusTotal with free licenses, managing the license limits across three or four accounts, thus incurring no costs."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
14%
Outsourcing Company
8%
Computer Software Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Comms Service Provider
12%
Computer Software Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise14
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise5
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Recorded Future?
The price of Recorded Future is a bit high, especially for smaller teams working on a tight budget, but it is very effective and relatively competitive for large organizations.
What needs improvement with Recorded Future?
Recorded Future can be improved in terms of their APIs and their integration. Mainly their integration is very difficult, especially with their dark web monitoring notifications and brand protectio...
What is your primary use case for Recorded Future?
My main use case for Recorded Future is IOC enrichment, dark web monitoring, brand protection, and sandboxing for malware. For investment monitoring, privacy protection, or sandboxing in my day-to-...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for VirusTotal?
I do not know about the pricing or licensing as our organization services VirusTotal for our clients.
What needs improvement with VirusTotal?
I would like to see improvements in the score consistency and accuracy. VirusTotal should add more details like those from competitors such as URL Void or Symantec URL Checker, which show the categ...
What is your primary use case for VirusTotal?
As I work in an incident response role, my daily task is to mitigate the security alert and perform the analysis part. When any alerts come, I check the IPs from where they originate and the locati...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Fujitsu, Regions, SITA, St. Jude Medical, Accenture, T-Mobile, TIAA, Intel Security, Armor, Alert Logic, NTT, Splunk
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Recorded Future vs. VirusTotal and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
914,938 professionals have used our research since 2012.