Angry IP Scanner vs Advanced IP Scanner vs IPScanner.Pro
Advanced IP Scanner is free and easiest on Windows but Windows-only and closed source. Angry IP Scanner is free, open source and runs on Windows, macOS and Linux. Both are available today. IPScanner.Pro adds encrypted history and visible evidence, and has no public download — so the real choice is between the first two.
By Ahmad Abdur Rehman, Maintainer, IPScanner.ProLast reviewed 2026-09-14Sources verified 2026-09-11
You want the two obvious free options judged against each other, without being sold a third.
These are the two tools that come up first in this category, they are both free, and the choice between them is genuinely close. Putting our own product in the same table is a fair question to raise — so here is the answer up front: it belongs there for completeness, and it loses on availability to both of them, because it has no public download.
The real decision most people are making is Angry IP Scanner versus Advanced IP Scanner, and it turns on two things only: what operating systems you need, and whether the software has to be auditable.
If you are all-Windows and nobody is going to ask you to evidence what the tool does with your data, Advanced IP Scanner is the path of least resistance and there is nothing wrong with taking it. If either condition fails, Angry IP Scanner is the answer.
Side by side
Every cell about a product we do not make is what that vendor or project publishes about itself. “Not stated in the source we cite” means exactly that — the source does not cover the point, so it is left blank rather than filled in from memory.
Competitor entries come from the sources in the citation table below, each retrieved on the date shown there. Our own row states shipped capabilities only.
Tool
Platforms
Licence and price
Account or cloud
Where results live
What it is good at
Sources
Angry IP ScannerThe Angry IP Scanner project
Windows, macOS and Linux. The current release bundles a Java runtime with the Windows and macOS builds; the Linux packages declare a Java dependency instead.
Free and open source.
No account is described in the project’s own documentation.
Scanning and results stay on the machine that ran them. The project added an optional anonymous error-report setting in Preferences in 3.8.1.
The most portable of the free scanners: one tool, three operating systems, no installation required, and an export format for nearly anything you want to do with the list afterwards.
Windows 11, 10, 8 and 7, per the vendor. No macOS or Linux build is published.
Free.
Not stated on the page we cite.
Not stated on the page we cite.
It asks the least of you of anything on a Windows network: no install decisions, a familiar list, and shared-folder and Radmin actions built into the same window.
A native macOS application. A Windows x64 portable build is implemented, but native acceptance testing is not complete.
Free-first for individuals. Paid organisation features are planned, not available.
No account for local scanning. The current desktop workflow is Local Only; optional online sync is designed but not built.
On the machine that scanned, encrypted, keyed to the macOS Keychain or Windows DPAPI. Online sync is designed as a per-device opt-in on top of that, and it does not exist yet — there is no upload path in the product today.
It shows the evidence behind every identification instead of asserting an answer, keeps encrypted history so you can see what changed since last time, and prices an expensive action before it runs rather than after.
Our own product, not a citation.
Which one to pick
A comparison that steers every reader to the same answer is an advertisement. These are the conditions under which each tool here is the right choice — including the ones that are not ours.
Angry IP Scanner
You want one free, open-source scanner that behaves the same on Windows, macOS and Linux, and you are comfortable with a Java application.
Advanced IP Scanner
Every machine you administer runs Windows, you want a free tool that a colleague will already recognise, and you do not need it on a Mac.
IPScanner.Pro
You want to know why a device was identified the way it was, and you want the result to stay on your machine unless you deliberately decide otherwise.
Platform decides it more often than features
Famatech lists Advanced IP Scanner for Windows 11, 10, 8 and 7 and publishes no macOS or Linux download. Angry IP Scanner runs on all three, with the current release bundling a Java runtime into the Windows and macOS builds so there is no separate Java install on those platforms.
This single fact resolves most of these comparisons. A mixed fleet, or an administrator working from a Mac, is not really choosing — one of the two options simply does not run.
Auditability decides the rest
Angry IP Scanner is open source, and its release notes show the kind of maintenance that matters: 3.10.0 added a plugin trust confirmation dialog, quoted shell arguments passed to openers to prevent command injection via DNS poisoning, and fixed a possible SQL injection in its SQL exporter. Its optional anonymous error reporting is a setting you can see and turn off.
Advanced IP Scanner is closed source, and the vendor page we cite does not describe how results are stored or transmitted. We are not implying anything by that — we are pointing out that if you need to answer the question with evidence rather than trust, one of these two tools lets you and the other does not.
Where the third column fits
Not in this decision, today. IPScanner.Pro has no public download, macOS is the only verified platform, and the Windows build has not completed acceptance testing. Listing it here without saying that would be exactly the kind of comparison page this site exists to be an alternative to.
What it adds, when it exists, is the layer neither of the others has: encrypted retained history on the machine that scanned, NEW, GONE and CHANGED computed against the previous scan of the same scope, and identifications that show the evidence behind them. Local Only is the current data path, and optional online sync is designed as an opt-in on top of it rather than shipped.
What each of these cannot do
Every entry below includes the tool we make, on the same terms and in the same list. The competitor entries state capabilities, not quality judgements.
Angry IP Scanner — The Angry IP Scanner project
It is a Java application. The current release requires Java 21 or newer and bundles a runtime with the Windows and macOS builds, so the download is larger than a native binary.
Plugins load into the running application. The project added a plugin trust confirmation dialog in 3.10.0 for exactly that reason.
The project website’s news page stops in 2019, which makes the project look dormant. The release history says otherwise — 3.10.0 shipped with a bundled runtime, modern Java support and security fixes. Judge the repository, not the news page.
Device identification is deliberately thin. It tells you what answered, not what the thing is.
It has no macOS or Linux version. The vendor’s download page lists Windows only, so “Advanced IP Scanner for Mac” has nothing official to install, and a Mac download offered by some other site would not be the vendor’s.
The vendor’s page does not state how results are stored or whether anything is sent anywhere, so this comparison does not claim either way.
It is closed source, so its behaviour cannot be audited the way an open-source scanner’s can.
There is no public download. Signed and notarized distribution does not exist yet, so nothing on this site offers an installer or a version number.
macOS is the verified platform. The Windows x64 build is implemented but has not completed native acceptance testing.
Full ports is not a whole-range sweep. It runs only on devices you select from a completed discovery in the same session.
Restored inventory is labelled historical and never claims a device is reachable now. Startup restore covers the newest retained scan and stops at 256 devices; the History dialog covers the rest.
Device identification can be incomplete. Private MAC addresses, blocked responses and thin evidence limit what any local tool can conclude.
Online sync, accounts and organisation features are not built. The design keeps local storage as the default and adds sync as an opt-in, but none of it ships today.
Scanning on macOS requires Local Network permission; Windows may show a firewall prompt or apply an organisation policy.
What we have built, and what we have not
The row above is a summary. This is the full list, marked by whether it exists today. A feature marked planned is a design decision, not a promise with a date, and nothing on this site should be bought or downloaded on the strength of one — there is nothing to buy or download yet.
ShippedBounded discovery with visible evidence. Quick, Balanced and Thorough discovery inside a scope you authorize, showing provisional rows while the scan runs and the evidence behind every identification.
ShippedFull ports on devices you select. A selected-device action on a finished discovery in the same session, priced as devices × 65,535 attempts before you confirm. It is not a whole-range sweep.
ShippedEncrypted local history. Scans are retained encrypted on the machine that ran them, keyed to the macOS Keychain or Windows DPAPI, with a one-year default retention you can change.
ShippedNEW, GONE and CHANGED against earlier scans. Manual records compare against earlier evidence for the same scope, preserve matched first-seen dates, and suppress GONE on a partial scan so an interrupted run cannot invent a disappearance.
ShippedLocal Only as the default data path. The current desktop workflow is Local Only: results are written to the machine that scanned and there is no upload path in the product today.
PlannedOptional online sync of results. The design keeps local storage as the default and adds sync as a per-device opt-in, so a result reaches a server only when you turn it on. It is not built: there are no accounts, no registered agents and no durable storage yet, and nothing on this site should be read as offering it today.
PlannedSigned, public downloads. There is no public download. Signed and notarized distribution does not exist yet, which is why no page on this site carries a download button or a version number.
Every claim, and where it came from
Every statement about another product on this page comes from that vendor’s or project’s own published material, with the retrieval date shown for each source. Where a source does not cover a point, the table says so instead of guessing. This page contains no benchmarks, no speed or accuracy comparisons and no hands-on measurements of the other tools: we did not test them to write it.
Each row is a claim this page makes about a product we do not make, and the publication it came from.
Claim on this page
Source
Retrieved
Angry IP Scanner is free, open source and cross-platform for Windows, macOS and Linux, and needs no installation.
Angry IP Scanner 3.10.0 requires Java 21 or newer, bundles a Java runtime with the Windows and macOS builds, and its macOS build no longer requires Rosetta.
Angry IP Scanner 3.10.0 added a plugin trust confirmation dialog, quoted shell arguments passed to openers to prevent command injection via DNS poisoning, and fixed a possible SQL injection in its SQL exporter.
Competitor platforms, licence models and account requirements change. These pages are re-checked quarterly, and immediately when a cited product changes. If something here is out of date, telling us is the fastest way to get it fixed.
About this page and who wrote it
This page was written from the vendors’ and projects’ own published documentation and from the IPScanner.Pro codebase, including the scope, consent and Full-ports rules the desktop application enforces. It makes no first-hand claim about how any other tool behaves in practice, because we did not test them to write it.
Where it is wrong, or where a cited product has changed, support@ipscanner.pro reaches the person who maintains it, and corrections are made rather than argued with. A suspected security issue in IPScanner.Pro goes to security@ipscanner.pro instead — there is a disclosure policy setting out what happens next.
Written by
Ahmad Abdur Rehman — Maintainer, IPScanner.Pro
Relevant experience
Writes and maintains the scanning engine described on this page, including the scope, consent and Full-ports rules the desktop application enforces.
Last reviewed
2026-09-14
Sources verified
2026-09-11
What this page is based on
The vendors’ and projects’ own published documentation, and the IPScanner.Pro codebase. No benchmark, and no hands-on test of any other tool listed here.
Questions people ask
Which is better, Angry IP Scanner or Advanced IP Scanner?
Advanced IP Scanner is smoother on Windows and has shared-folder and remote-control actions next to the list. Angry IP Scanner is open source and runs on Windows, macOS and Linux. If you need more than Windows, or you need auditable software, Angry IP Scanner. Otherwise it is close enough to be a preference.
Are both of them really free?
Yes. Advanced IP Scanner is free, and Angry IP Scanner is free and open source. Neither is a time-limited trial, and neither withholds the device list behind a paid tier — which is not true of every scanner in this category, so it is worth confirming before you commit to one.
Which of the three works on macOS?
Angry IP Scanner runs on macOS today. Advanced IP Scanner does not and has no Mac build at all. IPScanner.Pro is a native macOS application but has no public download, so it is not something you can install.
Why is your own product in this comparison if it cannot be downloaded?
Because leaving it out would be a different kind of dishonesty, and because the comparison is the place to state its limits rather than a page you have to go looking for. The direct answer at the top of this page says which tools you can actually use.
Found something out of date on this page? Tell us at support@ipscanner.pro and it gets corrected — a comparison is only worth reading if the person who wrote it fixes it when it is wrong.