The Best Alternatives to MaxMind for IP Scoring in 2025

MaxMind has been a staple in IP geolocation and fraud detection for years. But as traffic gets more anonymized, blocklists become noisier, and fraud grows more coordinated, many teams are looking for smarter, real-time alternatives to MaxMind.

In this post, we’ll break down why teams are switching, what to look for in an IP scoring solution in 2025, and how CandycornDB is redefining how modern fraud and security teams score risk.

Why Companies Are Moving Away from MaxMind

• Outdated Data: Static lists and geo lookups struggle to keep up with dynamic IP behavior
• No Context: MaxMind tells you where an IP is, but not what it’s doing
• False Positives: VPNs and proxies are flagged equally, often blocking legit users
• Limited Insight: No subnet-level intelligence or ASN risk behavior modeling

What a Modern IP Scoring Tool Should Offer

• ✅ Subnet-aware risk clustering
• ✅ ASN scoring and reputation
• ✅ Real-time behavioral intelligence
• ✅ Fast, embeddable API with JSON output
• ✅ Fraud-focused scoring—not just geography

CandycornDB vs. MaxMind

Here’s how CandycornDB compares when it comes to fraud prevention, trial abuse detection, and proxy/VPN scoring:

• Real-Time Scoring: CandycornDB scores IPs using live subnet and port behavior—not static labels
• Risk-Weighted Output: Instead of yes/no flags, you get a 0–100 score with context (Tor, ASN history, subnet clustering)
• Proxy-Aware, Not Proxy-Blind: CandycornDB doesn’t treat all VPN traffic as risky—it models patterns over time
• Actionable Metadata: Country, ASN, subnet risk, anonymizer status, port scan history

How CandycornDB Works

Every IP that hits your app is scored based on:

• 🚨 Historical abuse signals by ASN
• 📡 Subnet overlap with Tor nodes and datacenter proxies
• 🧠 Behavioral clustering patterns

All of this is available via a fast REST API with usage-based billing and JSON output that plugs into your existing fraud stack.

Final Thoughts

If you’re still relying on MaxMind or IP2Location for fraud detection, it might be time to evolve. CandycornDB offers the intelligence, flexibility, and speed modern teams need to stay ahead of anonymized traffic and coordinated fraud.

Try CandycornDB free or view the API docs to see how we’re helping fraud teams score smarter in 2025.

Still using MaxMind? Here’s how CandycornDB compares →