# Pulsedive vs WhoisXML API

> WhoisXML scores 56.8 (C) to Pulsedive's 47.9 (D) for secintel indicators. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pulsedive-vs-whoisxml-api
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pulsedive-vs-whoisxml-api.md (~4,200 tokens)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (the key docs and every listing in one file, at most 16 MB, about 4 million tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (the whole catalogue as tools, no key)
- DNS: dig +short TXT <slug>.grade.anchorterminal.com (the grade as a DNS TXT record, for a sandbox with no HTTP where names still resolve; also top., best.<category>. and <a>.vs.<b>. under the zone, and the same under grade.letme.dev)
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)
- Updated: 2026-11-04

WhoisXML API scores 56.8 (C) on agent readiness against Pulsedive's 47.9 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Pulsedive leads on schema & documentation and payments & pricing. Both do secintel indicators.

- Pulsedive: grade D, 47.9/100, rank #1047 of 1349. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/pulsedive.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/pulsedive.json
- WhoisXML API: grade C, 56.8/100, rank #731 of 1349. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/whoisxml-api.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/whoisxml-api.json
- Best threat and security intelligence APIs for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/security-intelligence/index.md
- All 33 security intel comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/security-intelligence/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Pulsedive (D)

Good for: An agent that needs a quick risk verdict and linked threats for a domain, IP or URL with no signup, or a passive scan of a new indicator.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 77 against 70
- Payments & pricing, 50 against 25

Watch for: The key is sent only as a query parameter, with no header option, scopes or rotation documented

### WhoisXML API (C)

Good for: An agent investigating a domain's registration, history, DNS, certificates or related domains at scale, on a prepaid credit pool.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 65 against 31
- Security & auth, 39 against 23
- Maintenance & community, 76 against 40

Also in its favour:
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
- Runs on your own machine

Watch for: Per-credit prices are not published outside a calculator; the only public figure is from $129 a month, and orders are non-refundable


## Why the edge

### Maintenance & community: WhoisXML API +36

- Pulsedive (40): Read as a closed service. The site footer shows version 6.3.18 dated 27 October, seven days before the check, and the newest blog post is 29 September 2026 (30). No changelog lists releases, so three dated changes in 90 days could not be shown (0 of 20). A Discord, support@pulsedive.com, a contact form and a docs troubleshooting section; the GitHub feedback repository is archived since 2020 (10 of 15). No entry in the official MCP registry (the docs MCP server is not listed and the registry's pulsedive entries are third-party) and no official SDK (0 of 15). No official packages to assess (0 of 10). 30 + 0 + 10 + 0 + 0 = 40.
- WhoisXML API (76): Read as a closed service with an official MCP server. MCP server 1.13.0 was published in the official registry on 3 November 2026 and the ProfessionalServices and ipgeo-community repositories were pushed the same day (30). 1.8.6 on 8 September through 1.13.0 on 3 November 2026 is nine registry versions in 90 days (20). Product updates are summarised in yearly press releases, the newest 9 May 2025, support is a contact form with tiered response times sold separately, and the client library repositories were last pushed in 2023 (8 of 15). The MCP server is in the official registry under io.github.whois-api-llc, and official Python and Go clients exist (15). The MCP server's source was not found on GitHub, and the SDK repositories show no activity since 2023 (3 of 10). 30 + 20 + 8 + 15 + 3 = 76.

### Reliability: WhoisXML API +34

- Pulsedive (31): Read with the hosted lines. No status page was found on the site, the docs, the support page or in search (0). No readable history (5). The limits page names Free, Pro, Commercial and Enterprise tiers and three remaining-request headers but gives no numbers, pointing to the account page; the vendor's plan post of 11 March 2024 gives 50 a day on Free and 250 on Pro (8 of 15). A 429 returns a JSON error naming the limit and the headers show what remains, with no Retry-After or backoff guidance; scans are safe to repeat and polling is free (8 of 15). No SLA; the terms supply the services as is and as available (0). The API is generally available (10). 0 + 5 + 8 + 8 + 0 + 10 = 31.
- WhoisXML API (65): Read with the hosted lines. The vendor's own Service Status and Data Releases page is linked from the docs and describes a per-API JSON status file with four levels (20). It shows no incident history and the status file's live values could not be read, so no 90-day record (5). The docs give 200 requests a second with rejection until the next second; the terms give 50 a second, 20 concurrent and 5 concurrent bulk requests, so numbers are published even though they disagree (15). A 429 AUTHENTICATE_06 carries Retry-After and every response X-RateLimit-Limit, X-RateLimit-Remaining and X-RateLimit-Reset, with guidance to slow before zero; all calls are reads (15). No SLA; the terms guarantee no minimum uptime and cite a historical 99.9 per cent, with enterprise SLAs by separate agreement (0). The API is generally available (10). 20 + 5 + 15 + 15 + 0 + 10 = 65.

### Payments & pricing: Pulsedive +25

- Pulsedive (50): No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Pro $29 a month is on the site menu and the Team and Business API prices are in the vendor's plan post of 11 March 2024, sold as monthly quotas rather than per call (10). A free account needs no card (20). Requests without a key are accepted, so an agent can look up an indicator with no signup at about 10 a day (20). 0 + 10 + 20 + 20 = 50.
- WhoisXML API (25): No x402, MPP or L402 (0). The only public price is from $129 a month for a universal credit pool; per-credit rates are behind a calculator whose output was not read and enterprise packages are by sales (5 of 20). 500 free WHOIS credits on signup with no card (20). The key comes from the account after a browser signup and no key API was found (0). 0 + 5 + 20 + 0 = 25.

### Security & auth: WhoisXML API +16

- Pulsedive (23): One key per account sent only as a query parameter, with no scopes, header option or rotation documented (10 for one all-powerful key less 10 for the query string, so 0). Lookups read, submit=1 writes to the public dataset and keyless use is read-only in practice, but there is no read-only key (10 of 20). Responses include community comments, banners and DOM snippets from scans with no guidance on treating them as untrusted (3 of 15). The privacy policy says web and API logs are available from the account page (10 of 15). security.txt returns 404 and no disclosure policy, bug bounty or certification was found (0 of 20). 0 + 10 + 3 + 10 + 0 = 23.
- WhoisXML API (39): An API key with no scopes found, accepted as an apiKey query parameter that overrides the Authorization header, or as a Bearer token including a server-to-server OAuth token; an IP allowlist can be set on the account (20 less 10 for the query string, plus 4 for OAuth and the allowlist, so 14). Every call is a read and the MCP server has no write tools, but there is no read-only or restricted key (12 of 20). Records include raw registrar text from third parties with no guidance on treating it as untrusted (5 of 15). The MCP server's account_balance tool reports credits per product and the account page shows usage, with no per-call log documented (5 of 15). security.txt returns 404, no disclosure policy, bug bounty or certification was found, and the payment page names only a PCI-compliant card processor (3 of 20). 14 + 12 + 5 + 5 + 3 = 39.

### Schema & documentation: Pulsedive +7

- Pulsedive (77): OpenAPI 3.0.3 documents for every endpoint, eleven YAML files under Apache 2.0, with typed parameters and response schemas, though split per endpoint and without a securitySchemes block in the scan and explore file (22 of 25). llms.txt and a Markdown twin of every page, plus a docs MCP server (10). Each endpoint states its purpose, probe and submit are explained with their side effects, and the collection page says what each timestamp means, with little on when not to call (15 of 20). Enumerated 0 or 1 flags, required parameters marked, risk and type enums, but key is optional while 401 describes it missing, and explore summaries allow types the indicator schema does not (11 of 15). curl examples on every page and an error table for 400, 401, 404, 429 and 500 with an example body (12 of 15). No API version or changelog; the docs launch post of 30 March 2026 and a footer version number are the only dated changes, and the spec marks the recent field deprecated with no date (7 of 15). 22 + 10 + 15 + 11 + 12 + 7 = 77.
- WhoisXML API (70): The surface graded is the WHOIS API, with the hosted MCP server noted. No OpenAPI document. JSON Schema draft-07 and XSD files define the WHOIS record, the DomainInfo response and the error body, and a Postman collection is published (15 of 25). llms.txt on www.whoisxmlapi.com lists the APIs, databases and feeds (10). The making-requests page states each parameter's purpose, default and credit cost, lists deprecated parameters that are still accepted, and says when RDAP applies, with little on when not to call (15 of 20). rdap, outputFormat and the cache flags have enumerated values and the record schema is typed, but unknown parameters are ignored silently and the output page gives no types in prose (11 of 15). Request examples, example records and an error table with HTTP status, errorCode and message (12 of 15). No API version and no changelog for the API; press releases summarise product updates yearly, the newest dated 9 May 2025, and the MCP server's versions are dated in the registry (7 of 15). 15 + 10 + 15 + 11 + 12 + 7 = 70.

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Pulsedive | WhoisXML API | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 31 | 65 | WhoisXML API +34 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 77 | 70 | Pulsedive +7 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 64 | 65 | WhoisXML API +1 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 23 | 39 | WhoisXML API +16 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 50 | 25 | Pulsedive +25 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 40 | 76 | WhoisXML API +36 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 57 | 60 | WhoisXML API +3 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **47.9 · D** | **56.8 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Pulsedive | WhoisXML API |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Pulsedive LLC | Whois API, Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://mcp-hosted.whoisxmlapi.com/mcp` |
| Transports |  | Streamable HTTP, stdio |
| Auth | API key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Tools exposed | 0 | 35 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | not listed | `io.github.whois-api-llc/mcp-whoisxmlapi` |
| Last release | 2026-10-27 | 2026-11-03 |
| Terms last updated | 2022-05-02 | 2025-03-03 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2024-08-28 | 2020-04-06 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | yes |

## Verdicts

**Pulsedive.** Lookups work with no key at all, a free account allows 50 requests a day, and the docs ship llms.txt, per-endpoint OpenAPI files and timestamps for every scan. The key travels only in the query string, numeric limits live in a 2024 blog post rather than the docs, and there is no status page, SLA, security.txt or official SDK.

**WhoisXML API.** 500 free credits with no card, JSON Schema and XSD for every response, 429s with Retry-After, cache controls that set the price per lookup, and a 35-tool hosted MCP server with OAuth. Per-credit prices sit behind a calculator, the terms confine data to one site and forbid AI training on it, and the key is accepted in the query string.

## Before you call either

### Pulsedive

1. Call `indicator.php?indicator=<value>&pretty=1&key=...`; without a key the limit is about 10 requests a day, so register for 50
2. Read `risk`, `risk_recommended` and `stamp_probed` together; an old `stamp_probed` means the scan data may be stale, so queue a scan with `analyze.php` (`probe=0` passive, `submit=0` to avoid storing)
3. Poll `analyze.php?qid=` no more than every 500 ms; polling does not count against the quota, but each page of linked indicators does
4. Treat a 429 as the day's or month's quota spent and stop; there is no Retry-After, and explore searches above the plan's row limit also return 429
5. Expect user comments, banners and DOM snippets in indicator properties, which are third-party content

### WhoisXML API

1. Send the key as `Authorization: Bearer` and `outputFormat=JSON`; the default output is XML and an `apiKey` query parameter overrides the header
2. Leave the cache flags alone for 1 credit a lookup; `_hardRefresh=1` costs 5 credits, and `_dbOnly=1` returns WHOIS_03 when nothing is cached
3. Read `audit.updatedDate` before trusting a record, and check `dataError` for MASKED_WHOIS_DATA or PARTIAL_DATA
4. Watch `X-RateLimit-Remaining` and on 429 AUTHENTICATE_06 wait for `Retry-After`; a 401 AUTHENTICATE_05 means the balance is spent, so stop
5. Keep results inside the customer's own systems; the terms forbid passing data to third parties or using it to train models

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Pulsedive or WhoisXML API?

WhoisXML API scores 56.8 (C) on agent readiness against Pulsedive's 47.9 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Pulsedive leads on schema & documentation and payments & pricing.

### Do Pulsedive and WhoisXML API need an API key?

Pulsedive needs an API key. WhoisXML API takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

### Can an agent call Pulsedive and WhoisXML API without installing anything?

No hosted endpoint is listed for Pulsedive. WhoisXML API has a hosted endpoint at https://mcp-hosted.whoisxmlapi.com/mcp.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pulsedive-vs-whoisxml-api.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pulsedive-vs-whoisxml-api.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "pulsedive", "b": "whoisxml-api"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare pulsedive whoisxml-api`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/pulsedive.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/whoisxml-api.json

## Other comparisons with Pulsedive or WhoisXML API

- [AbuseIPDB vs Pulsedive](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/abuseipdb-vs-pulsedive.md)
- [AbuseIPDB vs WhoisXML API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/abuseipdb-vs-whoisxml-api.md)
- [GreyNoise vs Pulsedive](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/greynoise-vs-pulsedive.md)
- [GreyNoise vs WhoisXML API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/greynoise-vs-whoisxml-api.md)
- [VirusTotal vs WhoisXML API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/virustotal-vs-whoisxml-api.md)
- [IPinfo vs Pulsedive](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ipinfo-vs-pulsedive.md)
- [IPinfo vs WhoisXML API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ipinfo-vs-whoisxml-api.md)
- [Censys vs WhoisXML API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/censys-vs-whoisxml-api.md)
- [Pulsedive vs SecurityTrails](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pulsedive-vs-securitytrails.md)
- [SecurityTrails vs WhoisXML API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/securitytrails-vs-whoisxml-api.md)
- [Shodan vs WhoisXML API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/shodan-vs-whoisxml-api.md)
- [Censys vs Pulsedive](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/censys-vs-pulsedive.md)
- [Pulsedive vs Shodan](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pulsedive-vs-shodan.md)
- [Pulsedive vs VirusTotal](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pulsedive-vs-virustotal.md)

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Query this catalogue directly over MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (Streamable HTTP, no key). How: https://www.anchorterminal.com/agents/#mcp