"OSINT tools should be free."

I hear this one a lot, usually phrased as a principle: the data is open, so the tools should be free.

The data is open. That part is true. What isn't free is everything between the data and your report. Someone has to build the capture engine. Someone has to make entity extraction work across a messy web. Someone has to run the servers your captures live on, keep the enrichments talking to APIs that change without warning, fix the bug you reported on Tuesday, and still be around in three years when you need your old case.

Free tools are wonderful when they exist, and plenty of good people give their work away. But look at what usually happens. The author gets a job, or gets bored, or sells. The tool stops being maintained. And you find out in the middle of an investigation.

What you're paying for

When you pay for Ubikron you're paying for three people to keep doing this, with no investors and nobody else to answer to. That's the deal. It's $350 a year, which is less than most investigators bill for a few hours.

If that doesn't sit right with you, there's a respectable alternative: build it yourself. I mean that kindly. I've done it three times. It's a lot of work, which is sort of the point.

Roelof TemminghFounder, Ubikron