Tired of Managing IP Databases?Switch to Real-Time Cloud Intelligence.
MaxMind is the established leader in IP geolocation, but they're built for database licensing and complex deployments. 1Lookup delivers modern IP intelligence with integrated fraud detection, real-time threat feeds, and cloud-native APIs. You send an IP address and get location and risk data back, with no database files to download or keep current.
Two ways to get IP intelligence
MaxMind ships databases you host and keep current. 1Lookup is a hosted API that returns location, network, and risk on every call.
The 1Lookup approach
- One hosted REST API: send an IP, get JSON back in a single call
- Geolocation, connection type, and ISP in every response
- Proxy, VPN, Tor, and datacenter flags with a 0-100 risk score, built in
- Data updated daily, nothing to download or keep current
- The same API key also validates phone numbers and email addresses
- Live in about 5 minutes, with 1,000 requests/min included
The MaxMind approach
- GeoIP2 databases you download and self-host, plus a web service
- Long-established, well-regarded IP geolocation and ISP data
- Anonymous-IP and fraud scoring offered through separate products (minFraud)
- Database files need periodic downloads to stay current
- Licensing and integration geared toward larger, custom deployments
- Focused on IP data (no phone or email validation)
If you already run self-hosted geolocation and want to keep it, MaxMind is a solid choice. If you would rather make one API call and get location, network, proxy/VPN flags, and a risk score without maintaining database files, 1Lookup is built for that.
Good tool, no fluff
Been using 1Lookup for a couple months now. We verify leads before pushing them into Pipedrive. Honestly it just works. Not fancy, not buggy, and the support actually answers when you write them. Can't really ask for more.
Brian LetzterUnited States · October 2025The most practical data tool I've used
I've seen hundreds of validation APIs come and go. 1Lookup stands out because they don't oversell. Their data is solid, support is honest, and they're transparent about limitations, which is rare in this industry. I've replaced three tools with this one. They listen, they iterate, and they keep improving. You can feel there are actual engineers behind it, not just salespeople.
Bùi Thị Thanh NgọcVietnam · October 2025Solid phone validation API
We use 1Lookup inside our telemarketing app to verify numbers before they go to the dialer. Setup was simple and the results have been consistent. It's not overloaded with features, just fast, accurate, and reliable. Docs could be a bit deeper, but honestly, it works out of the box.
Dirk van MeerUnited States · December 2025Saved us from hundreds of spam signups
We run a SaaS product with free trials and were getting flooded with bots and fake users. After integrating 1Lookup, the difference was night and day. It quietly filters out junk signups without blocking legitimate customers. The support team even helped us fine-tune our risk thresholds on a quick Zoom call. Being honest, we couldn't ask for more.
Ido ShachamUnited States · January 2026A good addition to our workflow
1Lookup has been a good addition to our workflow over the last few months. We use it to verify IPs, emails, and phone numbers, which has noticeably cut down the time we spend chasing dead-end applications. It's reasonably priced and their support team is actually helpful. It's a very practical tool for what we need.
Meredith Jr. RedmondIsrael · March 2026
MaxMind vs 1Lookup FAQ
Common questions about MaxMind and switching to 1Lookup
What is MaxMind?
MaxMind is an established provider of IP geolocation and online fraud prevention. Its GeoIP2 line delivers location, ISP, and connection-type data through downloadable databases you self-host and through a web service, while its minFraud product adds fraud scoring and anonymous-IP detection. MaxMind is widely used and well-regarded, especially by teams that want to run geolocation data on their own infrastructure. It also offers a free tier, GeoLite2, for basic geolocation.
How much does MaxMind cost?
MaxMind uses a tiered, volume-based pricing model rather than a single flat rate. Its GeoIP2 databases are sold as monthly or annual subscriptions, while the GeoIP and minFraud web services are billed per query using prepaid service credit that can be spent across tiers. MaxMind also provides a free GeoLite2 database for basic geolocation. As of publication, the exact price depends on which products, database licenses, and query volumes you need, so check MaxMind’s site for current figures.
What is the best MaxMind alternative?
The best alternative depends on whether you want to keep self-hosting databases or move to a hosted API. 1Lookup is a strong MaxMind alternative for teams that would rather make a single API call and get geolocation, connection type, ISP, and proxy/VPN/Tor risk flags back in one JSON response, with data updated daily and nothing to download. Its edge is that the same API key also validates phone numbers and email addresses, so IP, phone, and email checks run through one service and one universal credit system. A 7-day free trial lets you test it before committing.
How is 1Lookup different from MaxMind?
MaxMind centers on IP data delivered largely through downloadable databases you host and keep current, with fraud scoring in a separate minFraud product. 1Lookup is a cloud-native API that returns IP geolocation plus proxy, VPN, Tor, and datacenter risk flags in a single call, with data refreshed daily so there are no files to maintain. 1Lookup also unifies phone, email, and IP verification under one API and one universal credit system. If you specifically need self-hosted geolocation, MaxMind remains a solid choice.
Can I try 1Lookup for free?
Yes. 1Lookup offers a 7-day free trial, so you can send real IPs, phone numbers, and email addresses through the API and see the responses before you pay. You can be live in about 5 minutes, with no database files to download and no license negotiation. Sign up at app.1lookup.io to get started.
Try 1Lookup's IP intelligence free
Send your first IP through the API and get location, network, proxy/VPN flags, and a risk score in one response. No database files, no license negotiation. A 7-day free trial, live in about 5 minutes.
1Lookup vs MaxMind: the same criteria, side by side
Both products measured on identical criteria, with MaxMind’s numbers taken from its own published pricing.
1lookup1lookup.ioMulti-channel validation- Phone
- IP
maxmind.comIP intelligence- IP
- MaxMind · Starts at
- $20 minimum service credit purchase; at $0.0001/query that buys 200,000 GeoIP Country lookups ($0.10 per 1,000)
- 1Lookup: $99/mo for 20,000 credits ($4.95 per 1,000, down to $2.00 on Enterprise)
- MaxMind · Cheapest published per 1,000
- $0.10 at their largest published tier
- 1Lookup: $2.00 per 1,000 at 1,000,000 lookups/mo
- MaxMind · Free trial
- Free trial of the paid GeoIP web services available on request via a trial form ("Try the GeoIP web services for free"); quota and length not published. The free GeoLite2 tier is the de facto ongoing trial.
- 1Lookup: 7-day free trial on every plan: $5 of credits on Starter, $20 on Growth, Professional, and Enterprise (card required, nothing charged up front)
| Criteria |  1Lookup | |
|---|---|---|
| Contact-data coverage | EmailPhoneIP | EmailPhoneIP |
| Pricing model | Monthly plans with universal credits; core phone, email and IP lookups cost 1 credit, enrichment and intelligence products cost more | Prepaid pay-as-you-go service credit (enter any amount, $20 minimum, $25,000 maximum) debited per query at $0.0001 (GeoIP Country), $0.0003 (City Plus), or $0.002 (Insights), with the same credit usable interchangeably for minFraud; downloadable GeoIP database subscriptions run $38 to $148/mo and query spend above $2,500/mo moves to negotiated rates. |
| Starting price | $99/mo for 20,000 credits ($4.95 per 1,000, down to $2.00 on Enterprise) | $20 minimum service credit purchase; at $0.0001/query that buys 200,000 GeoIP Country lookups ($0.10 per 1,000) |
| Free option | Free single lookups via the online tools at 1lookup.io/tools, no account required | GeoLite2 Country, City, and ASN databases free with account signup (capped at 30 downloads/day), plus free GeoLite Country and City web services capped at 1,000 lookups/day per service |
| Free trial | 7-day free trial on every plan: $5 of credits on Starter, $20 on Growth, Professional, and Enterprise (card required, nothing charged up front) | Free trial of the paid GeoIP web services available on request via a trial form ("Try the GeoIP web services for free"); quota and length not published. The free GeoLite2 tier is the de facto ongoing trial. |
| Do credits expire? | Unused monthly credits roll over for 3 months; separately purchased credits last 1 year | Not published |
Cost per 1,000: MaxMind and 1Lookup
Published rates only, drawn on one shared scale that starts at $0.
- 1Lookup rate card
- MaxMind published tiers
MaxMind, per published tier
1,000,000 Country queries
$0.101,000,000 City Plus queries
$0.3010,000 Insights queries
$2.00
1Lookup, reference band (a range, not a bar from $0)
All 4 plans, 20,000 lookups/mo to 1,000,000 lookups/mo
Cost per 1,000
| Product | Volume tier | Price | Cost per 1,000 |
|---|---|---|---|
| MaxMind | 1,000,000 Country queries | $100 in service credit ($0.0001/query) | $0.10 |
| MaxMind | 1,000,000 City Plus queries | $300 in service credit ($0.0003/query) | $0.30 |
| MaxMind | 10,000 Insights queries | $20 in service credit ($0.002/query) | $2.00 |
| 1Lookup | 20,000 lookups/mo | $99/mo (Starter) | $4.95 |
| 1Lookup | 85,000 lookups/mo | $299/mo (Growth) | $3.52 |
| 1Lookup | 250,000 lookups/mo | $799/mo (Professional) | $3.20 |
| 1Lookup | 1,000,000 lookups/mo | $1,999/mo (Enterprise) | $2.00 |
What MaxMind costs at volume
| Volume | MaxMind price | Per 1,000 |
|---|---|---|
| 1,000,000 Country queries | $100 in service credit ($0.0001/query) | $0.10 |
| 1,000,000 City Plus queries | $300 in service credit ($0.0003/query) | $0.30 |
| 10,000 Insights queries | $20 in service credit ($0.002/query) | $2.00 |
| Unlimited local lookups, GeoIP City database download | $148/mo, or $1,628/yr ($135.67/mo) | - |
For scale: 1Lookup’s plans work out to $4.95 per 1,000 lookups on Starter down to $2.00 per 1,000 on Enterprise, with every lookup type (phone, email, IP, spam) drawing from the same credits. Pricing models differ (subscription vs pay-as-you-go), so compare at your real monthly volume.
The same month, priced both ways
Pick one of MaxMind’s own published volumes. Their figure is their published price at that tier; ours is the cheapest plan on our rate card that covers it. Nothing here is interpolated.
1Lookup
$99/mo
The Starter plan, 20,000 credits a month at $4.95 per 1,000. Using 10,000 of them is 50% of the plan, so $9.90 per 1,000 effective.
MaxMind
$20
Their published price for “10,000 Insights queries”, at $2 per 1,000.
At 10,000 a month, MaxMind is $79 cheaper. Our smallest plan that covers this volume includes 20,000 credits, so the gap closes as you use more of it.
MaxMind rates as published on maxmind.com, verified July 2026. Pricing models differ (a monthly plan is not a credit pack), so a like-for-like month depends on your real mix of lookups. Check their pricing page
MaxMind’s pricing page, as we read it
Every MaxMind figure above is taken from this page. It is reproduced here so you can check the numbers against the source instead of trusting our transcription of them, and the caption links straight to it. Prices change; the capture date says how fresh this is.
Before you sign: MaxMind and 1Lookup on the operational terms
The terms that decide what a year actually costs, rather than what the first month does. A blank means we could not verify it on either product’s published pages, not that the answer is nothing.
| Term | 1Lookup | MaxMind |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum commitment | None. Monthly plans with no contract and no minimum volume; cancel any time | Web services are prepaid with no contract: service credit must be purchased as 'a whole dollar amount between $20 and $25,000', making $20 the effective minimum. Databases are sold as one-month single purchases or as subscriptions that renew monthly or yearly. |
| Going over your quota | — | No overage rate is published. Web services draw down prepaid service credit on a per-query basis, and MaxMind offers an auto-recharge setting to top up credit automatically when it reaches a set threshold. A low-balance notification email is sent at 25% of the last purchase amount remaining. |
| API access | Included on every plan and during the free trial; there is no tier that unlocks it | Web service APIs are available self-serve on prepaid credit with no plan-tier gating. Published per-query prices: GeoIP Country $0.0001, GeoIP City Plus $0.0003, GeoIP Insights $0.002. Credit is interchangeable across GeoIP and minFraud web services. |
| Rate limit | 1,000 requests per minute on standard accounts, with higher limits available on request | — |
| Uptime SLA | — | The GeoIP web services page states 99.99% API uptime with servers in four locations. The security page describes high availability via redundant data centers and 24/7 monitoring but publishes no contractual SLA percentage; no SLA document was found on pages loaded. |
| Compliance | — | SOC 2 Type II audit completed; SOC 3 report publicly downloadable; information security management system based on the ISO 27001 standard; GDPR and CCPA compliance documentation available. |
| Support | Starter: Email Support; Growth: Priority Email & Chat Support; Professional: Chat + Live Meeting; Enterprise: Dedicated CSM | — |
MaxMind fine print worth reading twice
Published terms that change what MaxMind costs or what you can do with it. Each one links to the MaxMind page it was read on, because a claim about somebody else’s contract should be checkable in one click.
The standard end user license restricts use to 'Internal Restricted Business Purposes' and explicitly excludes 'providing Geolocation Functionality to applications or online platforms if users other than you can access or use the Geolocation Functionality for their own purposes or benefit', which requires a separately negotiated commercial license.
Read it on MaxMind’s siteMaxMind states it does not list prices for premium GeoIP databases or for commercial licenses, and that these are negotiated based on an individualized assessment of the proposed use case.
Read it on MaxMind’s siteService credit must be purchased as a whole dollar amount between $20 and $25,000, so $20 is the minimum web service purchase.
Read it on MaxMind’s siteRefunds may be requested only for up to two months after the date of purchase, and are unavailable once a database has been downloaded or once credits have been used by submitting queries.
Read it on MaxMind’s siteRates below the published per-query list price are not self-serve; customers estimating over $2,500 a month in queries are directed to contact MaxMind to discuss rates.
Read it on MaxMind’s siteDatabase list prices require annual billing to reach the advertised monthly figure: GeoIP City is $135.67/month billed $1,628 annually versus $148.00 per month on monthly billing.
Read it on MaxMind’s siteSOC 2 Type II encryption implementation details are reserved for qualified enterprise prospects rather than published.
Read it on MaxMind’s site
MaxMind’s API reference
Their public developer documentation, so you can judge the integration before you start one.
1Lookup
MaxMind
Where MaxMind wins
- Very low per-query IP rates: Country $0.0001 and City Plus $0.0003 per lookup ($0.10 and $0.30 per 1,000), pay as you go with no commitment and a $20 minimum
- Genuinely free GeoLite2 Country, City, and ASN databases plus free GeoLite Country and City web services at 1,000 lookups/day per service
- Downloadable databases ($38/mo Country, $148/mo City) give unlimited local lookups, with MaxMind stating the majority of databases are updated every weekday
- One credit balance works across all GeoIP tiers and the adjacent minFraud fraud-scoring services, with auto-recharge and a low-balance email alert at 25% of the last purchase amount
- Negotiated volume discounts available above $2,500/mo in query spend
Where 1Lookup wins
- Phone, email, and IP validation in one API with one universal credit balance
- Phone data refreshed daily from FCC and carrier sources
- Carrier/HLR lookup, line type, spam score, and reverse lookup included alongside validation
- Self-serve plans with no contracts and 3-month credit rollover
MaxMind pricing and product facts verified against maxmind.com as of July 2026. Prices change; always confirm on the vendor’s site. 1Lookup numbers come from the live rate card.
Who this is for
A quick, honest read on which tool fits your use case.
Choose 1Lookup if: you want IP checks alongside phone and email validation in one real-time API, rather than IP data on its own.
Consider MaxMind instead if: you specifically need IP geolocation or minFraud scoring, including self-hosted GeoIP2 databases you run on your own infrastructure.