MISP vs. OpenCTI: 2025 Updated Guide

Updated 10 June, 2025.

Both MISP and OpenCTI Share the Benefits of Being Open Source Software

MISP and OpenCTI are scrutinised and patched by the security community.

Being open source, many people have the chance to spot and patch potential vulnerabilities before they make it into a production release.

With open source software, you can inspect the code to be sure there are no exploitable flaws.

With closed source software, you must simply trust that the company behind the software follows secure development practices.

Cost and Support

MISP and OpenCTI are free to use, provided you are prepared to host the platforms on your own infrastructure.

The downside of free is that these platforms don’t come with any guarantee of support if things go wrong.

You’ll need to rely on volunteers in the open source community for whom you are not a #1 priority.

That’s why some folks have opted for managed and supported versions of these platforms, like CloudMISP, or OpenCTI’s enterprise support plan, which provide a guaranteed support SLA.

In 2025, managed offerings for both MISP and OpenCTI have become more mature, making them more viable for organisations that want open source flexibility without internal maintenance overhead.

MISP vs. OpenCTI: Feature Comparison

Data Modelling and Sharing Formats

MISP uses the MISP data model and supports sharing in STIX/TAXII formats, emphasising Indicators of Compromise (IoCs) and Indicators of Attack (IoAs).

OpenCTI uses STIX 2.1, allowing for more detailed descriptions of Tools, Techniques, and Procedures (TTPs), and offers customisable entity models for more flexible data mapping.

In 2025, OpenCTI has improved its mapping to the MITRE ATT&CK framework, allowing for richer contextualisation of TTPs within campaign timelines and actor profiles.

MISP, meanwhile, continues to lead in structured handling of attributes and context tagging through its Galaxy and Taxonomy systems. The MISP 2.5 release introduced major changes to how object templates and correlation work, making it easier to manage complex events and ensuring cleaner integration with third-party tools.

System Architecture

OpenCTI is a stack of components (React frontend, GraphQL, Elasticsearch, Redis, Minio, RabbitMQ, python workers and connectors) that run as separate applications as part of a broader system. Because of this, it is a good fit for container orchestration, and most people install OpenCTI using Docker and run one container for each connector it has enabled.

MISP has a shorter list of dependencies (namely Redis and MySQL) and therefore fewer moving parts compared to OpenCTI. Even so, MISP’s architecture also has Redis, a database, workers, a web app, and an API.

Overall, MISP’s architecture incorporates fewer different technologies compared to OpenCTI, which may make it easier to troubleshoot and manage for smaller teams.

As of 2025, both platforms have seen performance and scalability improvements. MISP's 2.5 release has notably reduced API latency and improved indexing speed for large-scale datasets.

Visualisation and Analysis

MISP provides extensive data viz options including graphs, charts, and maps, to help you analyse and comprehend threat data.

OpenCTI also includes data viz tools but is currently less developed in this area compared to MISP’s mature capabilities.

Recent updates to MISP have introduced more interactive dashboards and widget-based views for correlation and timeline analysis.

Integration with Security Tools

MISP has a wide range of integrations due to its established presence, covering firewalls, IDS, SIEM systems, and more.

OpenCTI focuses on integrating with threat intelligence platforms, although it is expanding its integrations portfolio over time.

Both platforms support bi-directional sharing with other systems, and in 2025, OpenCTI has added native support for more commercial TIPs and MISP itself via connectors.

MISP continues to be favoured for its native support of feed ingestion, IOC correlation, enrichment modules, and support for automated data curation with minimal custom scripting.

User Experience

MISP is very powerful but can be complex and may require more technical expertise to configure and use effectively.

OpenCTI is designed with a more intuitive user interface, aiming to be accessible to a wider range of users with varying technical backgrounds.

Usability improvements in OpenCTI over the past year have focused on simplified onboarding, contextual help, and dark mode support—features requested by analyst teams.

MISP 2.5 also introduced improved event editing workflows, revamped object editing UI, and context-aware suggestions to streamline threat intel entry.

Community and Support: A Closer Look at MISP vs. OpenCTI

MISP: The Advantage of Legacy

Established in 2012, MISP has had time to cultivate a large user community. It has a large network of users ranging from government agencies to academic institutions, which translates to a significant repository of shared knowledge.

The community's size enables an assortment of integrations and extensions, readily available on platforms like GitHub. Its user base contributes to a thriving exchange of scripts and solutions for common problems.

MISP’s forum and mailing lists are highly active, giving users a place to seek advice and share experiences.

In 2025, MISP maintains one of the most active threat intelligence open source communities, with monthly virtual user group calls and a growing list of community-maintained feed parsers.

OpenCTI: The Emerging Contender

Despite being newer, OpenCTI has made significant strides in community engagement since its launch in 2019. Its modern, user-friendly approach attracts a growing base of users who contribute to its development.

OpenCTI’s community is fostered through active engagement on platforms like GitHub and Gitter, where users can interact with the developers directly.

The platform is gaining traction, and with its increasing popularity, the community support is expected to expand, potentially offering more diverse insights and innovations.

Cross-Community Sharing

Cross-pollination of ideas between the two communities could lead to mutual improvements, as both platforms can convert data between MISP format and STIX (with varying degrees of success!).

New tools in 2025 have improved data interoperability, including utilities that facilitate more accurate conversion of OpenCTI entities to MISP event formats and vice versa.

Which platform is more popular?

Based on Google Trends data the popularity of both MISP and OpenCTI is growing, with MISP overall more popular. This may be because MISP is often the platform of choice for threat sharing communities, giving it a level of viral adoption between community members wanting to participate in threat sharing with industry peers.

If MISP seems like the best fit for your organisation, we recommend CloudMISP, our managed MISP service. CloudMISP makes it easy for any CTI team to get up and running with a productionised MISP without the barriers and blockers of an internal IT project.

If you’re exploring OpenCTI but need help with deployment and connectors, Cosive’s engineering team can assist with containerised deployments and production tuning for OpenCTI. Contact us to discuss your needs.