Stealed vs HaveIBeenPwned: Which Credential Leak Detection Service Should You Use?

Stealed and HaveIBeenPwned (HIBP) both detect credential leaks, but they monitor fundamentally different sources. HIBP indexes credentials from publicly disclosed database breaches, while Stealed monitors raw infostealer logs, dark web forums, combo lists, and private Telegram channels in real time. For organizations facing modern credential theft threats, the distinction between these two approaches determines whether you detect a compromise in hours or months.

What does HaveIBeenPwned do?

HaveIBeenPwned, created by Troy Hunt in 2013, is the most widely known breach notification service. It aggregates data from publicly disclosed database breaches and allows individuals to check whether their email address appears in any of those breaches. HIBP has cataloged over 14 billion compromised accounts across more than 800 breach incidents.

The service works by collecting breach datasets after they become publicly available, often through security researchers, law enforcement, or the breached organizations themselves. Users can search by email address or subscribe to notifications for their domain. HIBP also powers the Pwned Passwords API, which allows developers to check whether a password has appeared in known breaches.

HIBP serves an important role in the security ecosystem and remains a valuable free resource. However, its architecture has a fundamental limitation: it only covers credentials that originate from traditional database breaches, and only after those breaches are publicly disclosed and processed.

What does Stealed do differently?

Stealed monitors a completely different layer of the credential theft ecosystem. Instead of waiting for breach disclosures, Stealed ingests raw infostealer logs as they are distributed across dark web marketplaces, private Telegram channels, and cybercriminal forums.

Infostealers like RedLine, LummaC2, Raccoon, and Vidar steal credentials directly from infected devices, harvesting saved passwords, session cookies, and authentication tokens from browsers and applications. According to the IBM X-Force Threat Intelligence Index 2024, infostealer activity increased by 266% year-over-year, making this category of credential theft far more prevalent than traditional database breaches.

Stealed processes over 100 million credentials daily from these sources, matching them against your organization’s monitored domains and delivering alerts through Slack, Microsoft Teams, or webhooks within hours of the credentials appearing in the wild.

How do the data sources compare?

The core difference between these services comes down to what they monitor. This comparison illustrates the gap:

Aspect	HaveIBeenPwned	Stealed
Primary sources	Publicly disclosed database breaches	Infostealer logs, dark web forums, combo lists, Telegram channels
Credential origin	Server-side breaches (databases hacked)	Client-side theft (malware on user devices)
Data freshness	Weeks to months after breach occurs	Hours after credentials are exfiltrated
Volume	14B+ accounts from 800+ breaches	100M+ new credentials ingested daily
Contextual data	Breach name, date, data types exposed	Stealer family, machine ID, IP address, infected device details
Password visibility	Hashed (Pwned Passwords API)	Full cleartext as found in logs

The Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report 2024 found that stolen credentials were involved in 31% of all breaches, with infostealer-sourced credentials increasingly used as the initial access vector. The majority of these credentials never appear in HIBP because they do not originate from a traditional database breach.

Why is real-time detection critical?

The time between credential theft and exploitation is shrinking rapidly. When an employee’s device is infected by an infostealer, the harvested credentials can appear on Telegram channels or dark web marketplaces within hours. Attackers who purchase or access these logs often attempt to use the stolen credentials immediately.

With HIBP, the detection timeline depends on when a breach is publicly disclosed and processed. For major breaches, this can take months or even years. The LinkedIn breach of 2012, for example, was not fully disclosed until 2016. During that gap, stolen credentials are actively exploited with no notification to the affected users.

Stealed eliminates this detection gap by monitoring sources in real time. When credentials matching your domains appear in a fresh infostealer log or combo list, you receive an alert within hours, not months. This allows security teams to force password resets, revoke active sessions, and investigate the scope of compromise before attackers can leverage the stolen access.

How do enterprise features compare?

For organizations evaluating these tools, the feature set beyond basic notifications matters significantly:

Feature	HaveIBeenPwned	Stealed
Domain monitoring	Yes (domain search)	Yes (multi-domain, subdomain support)
API access	Yes (rate-limited)	Yes (REST API on Pro, unlimited on Enterprise)
Team management	Limited	Multi-user with role-based access
Alert channels	Email	Email on Pro; Slack, Microsoft Teams, webhooks and email on Enterprise
SIEM integration	Manual via API	Webhook-based, API-compatible (Enterprise)
Retention	Historical breach data	30 days on Pro, unlimited on Enterprise
Pricing	Free (individual), paid (domain search)	Free tier, Pro from 149 EUR/month (excl. tax), Enterprise custom

Stealed’s enterprise features are designed for security operations teams that need to integrate credential leak monitoring into their existing workflows. The webhook and API capabilities allow direct integration with SIEM platforms, SOAR playbooks, and incident response processes.

When should you use HaveIBeenPwned?

HIBP remains the right choice for individual users who want to check whether their email appears in known database breaches. It is also useful as a baseline awareness tool, helping people understand whether their credentials have been exposed in historical incidents. The Pwned Passwords API is an excellent resource for developers building password validation into their applications.

For personal security hygiene and historical breach awareness, HIBP is a proven and reliable service that everyone should use.

When should you use Stealed?

Stealed is built for organizations that need to detect credential threats as they emerge, not after they have been publicly disclosed. If your security requirements include monitoring for infostealer compromises, detecting credentials in combo lists and dark web forums, receiving real-time alerts through your team’s communication tools, or integrating leak detection into your security operations workflow, then Stealed addresses the gaps that HIBP does not cover.

The two services are complementary rather than mutually exclusive. HIBP covers historical database breaches, while Stealed covers the real-time infostealer and dark web ecosystem that represents the majority of credential theft today. According to IBM X-Force 2024 data, infostealers have become the dominant method of credential compromise, surpassing traditional database breaches in both volume and velocity.

How can you get started?

The most effective approach to credential leak detection combines both perspectives: historical breach awareness from HIBP and real-time infostealer monitoring from Stealed.

Further reading

• What is an infostealer?: understand how credential-stealing malware works and why it matters for your organization
• CTI: a practical guide to Cyber Threat Intelligence: learn how credential leak monitoring fits into a broader threat intelligence strategy

Start monitoring your domains for free with Stealed and discover whether your organization’s credentials are already circulating in infostealer logs, combo lists, or dark web channels. With real-time alerts and contextual intelligence on every detected leak, your security team can respond to threats before they become breaches.