ssid.ai vs maclookup.app

Where maclookup.app is the right answer

Corrected 2026-09-06. This page originally ran a coverage finding here: the IEEE hands out large blocks (MA-L, 24-bit) to big vendors and smaller ones (MA-M 28-bit, MA-S 36-bit, the older IAB) to everyone else, the small blocks sit inside MA-L prefixes the IEEE Registration Authority holds on paper, and ssid.ai stopped at the MA-L table while maclookup.app resolved through to the company that actually got the small block. That was true and it was a real gap. It was found by writing this page, and it is fixed. ssid.ai now ingests all five registry files daily and matches the longest prefix:

$ curl "https://api.maclookup.app/v2/macs/70:B3:D5:12:34:56"
{ "macPrefix": "70B3D5123", "company": "Amfitech ApS", "country": "DK",
  "blockType": "MA-S", "blockSize": 4095, "isRand": false }             # HTTP 200

$ curl "https://ssid.ai/api/v1/lookup?mac=70:B3:D5:12:34:56"           # before 2026-09-06
{ "vendor": { "organization": "IEEE Registration Authority" } }        # the block holder, not the assignee

$ curl "https://ssid.ai/api/v1/lookup?mac=70:B3:D5:12:34:56"           # now
{ "oui": "70B3D5", "kind": "universal",
  "vendor": { "organization": "Amfitech ApS" }, "blockType": "MA-S",
  "block": { "start": "70B3D5123000", "end": "70B3D5123FFF" },
  "confidence": 1 }                                                     # HTTP 200

The finding stays on the page instead of being deleted, because a comparison that quietly edits out its own losses is not worth reading. IoT and industrial devices are disproportionately on MA-S and IAB blocks, and “IEEE Registration Authority” was a correct answer that told you nothing. maclookup.app was the better lookup for those addresses until this shipped.

Rate. Without a key, maclookup.app allows 10 requests a second and 25,000 per six hours. ssid.ai allows unlimited requests per day but caps bursts at 60 a minute without a key and 300 a minute on the Pro tier. For a scan that resolves a few thousand addresses in one go, maclookup.app finishes first. It has also run since 2018, ships downloadable JSON and CSV databases and a Cisco vendorMacs.xml export, and its homepage showed a refresh dated the day we checked.

Where ssid.ai is different

Randomized-address detection is not the difference here; both services flag it, and maclookup.app even names the CID registrant behind an Android private address. The difference is what ssid.ai holds besides the vendor table:

• Router default logins across 424 models: gateway IP, admin username, password and reset steps, each transcribed from the manufacturer's own documentation with the source URL attached. A field with no citation does not publish. The same API and the same MCP server answer “whose device is this” and “how do I log into the router it is on”.
• The compliance index: 72% of 424 tracked models no longer ship a universal default password, the pattern the UK PSTI Act and the EU Cyber Resilience Act target, with a free JSON feed and the whole dataset published as CSV and JSON under CC BY 4.0.
• An MCP server. npx -y ssid-mcp gives an assistant lookup_mac and submit_correction as typed tools, no key.
• A source object on every lookup naming the IEEE registry URL, and a dated record of prefixes whose registrant changed since 2016, on each directory page.

What changed at maclookup.app

Their key-deprecation page says new API key registration has been discontinued and that existing keys keep their higher limit (50 requests a second) until April 2027. No pricing page exists (the URL is a 404), so there is no paid path to a higher limit after that date. If you built on a maclookup.app key, April 2027 is the date to plan around. ssid.ai's lookup has no key requirement and no daily cap, which is stated in full on /pricing.

How to decide

Ask two questions. Does your traffic include devices on small IEEE blocks, and do you need thousands of answers in a minute? If yes to either, maclookup.app resolves further and faster. Do you need to go from a MAC address to the router it sits behind, or to hand an assistant a tool instead of a URL? If yes, that is the job ssid.ai is built for, and the two can sit side by side: maclookup.app for resolution, ssid.ai for the router and compliance data.