MaxMind's free country and ASN data is four boxes. IPinfo Lite is one

General
1

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It is such a hard pitch.

  • MaxMind GeoIP Country + redistribution rights = $XX,XXX / year
  • MaxMind GeoIP Country, internal use only = $X,XXX / year
  • MaxMind GeoLite Country, accuracy compromised, + redistribution rights = $X,XXX / year
  • MaxMind GeoLite Country, accuracy compromised, internal use only = Free

Then you have the ASN database from them, which follows the same pattern.

So the only free box is the accuracy compromised one, for internal use only. To get full accuracy, or the right to ship the data inside a product, you move up the paid tiers. Accuracy and redistribution are priced on two separate axes. The most useful box, full accuracy with redistribution rights, is also the most expensive.

IPinfo Lite collapses all of that into a single box.

  • Full accuracy. The country and ASN accuracy is identical to our premium IP geolocation and ASN databases. We build it from active measurements, a large amount of research, and many supporting datasets.
  • Commercially redistributable under CC BY-SA 4.0. You can package it inside your product and ship it to your users. The only condition is attribution to IPinfo.
  • Free. No internal use restriction, and no redistribution fee.
  • Community support and integrations included.

Docs: IPinfo Lite Database | IPinfo.io

2

Still surprised that no-one has made a fork of CSF to use IPinfo Lite or the IPinfo database for Config Server and Firewall now that it’s been open source for months and that cPanel support it to some extent.

ref: Welcome to the IPinfo Hackathon 2025! - #8 by competitions
and https://support.cpanel.net/hc/en-us/articles/37654028162071-cPanel-will-provide-its-own-fork-of-CSF-starting-Feb-25th-2026

3

There are six forks of the project.

  1. GitHub - cpanel/cpanel-csf: Scripts for Way to the Web Limited Products (cPanel support only) · GitHub
  2. GitHub - Black-HOST/csf: Maintained fork of CSF (ConfigServer Security & Firewall) · GitHub
  3. GitHub - sentinelfirewall/sentinel: Sentinel Firewall - fork of ConfigServer Firewall & Security (CSF)✌️ · GitHub
  4. GitHub - Aetherinox/csf-firewall: ConfigServer Security & Firewall (CSF) - Robust linux iptables/nftables firewall & free ipset blocklist service. · GitHub
  5. GitHub - poralix/da-csf: A git repository to track changes done in CSF by DirectAdmin developers. Only tracking changes. · GitHub
  6. GitHub - centminmod/configserver-scripts: Scripts for Way to the Web Limited Products · GitHub

I have made a feature request to a couple of the repos.

4

I think there’s some confusion worth clarifying here about what you’re actually getting with each service.

MaxMind’s free GeoIP2 Country database is genuinely limited—you get country-level accuracy with modest update frequency. The ASN data is separate and also has constraints on free tier usage. If you’re comparing total deliverables, yes, that’s technically multiple datasets.

But IPinfo’s Lite tier isn’t really “one box” in a meaningful way. What you’re paying for is integrated data where country, ASN, and company information are unified in a single response. That’s architecturally different from MaxMind’s approach, which treats them as separate products. For most use cases, that integration matters more than the box count.

The real comparison should be: what accuracy do you need and at what query volume. MaxMind’s free tier works fine if you’re doing light geolocation checks and can tolerate occasional staleness. IPinfo Lite makes sense if you need both ASN and country data together and want daily updates.

One thing worth testing: MaxMind’s accuracy degrades noticeably at the city level on the free tier, but their country-level data is solid. IPinfo punches above its weight on ASN data accuracy even in Lite, which matters if you’re identifying CDNs or hosting providers.

What’s your actual use case here. Are you filtering by country, identifying infrastructure, or something else. That’ll matter more than the packaging.

5

Hi,

Thank you for posting in the community.

That’s architecturally different from MaxMind’s approach, which treats them as separate products. For most use cases, that integration matters more than the box count.

When we first launched IPinfo Lite, we actually offered three separate downloads: IP to Country, IP to ASN, and IP to Country + ASN.

Adoption of the standalone free ASN database was low. We also looked at how country level data is typically used. The common applications are firewalls, DNS enrichment, and file mirroring. For blacklists and whitelists, country data is only half the picture. ASN metadata matters just as much. So we settled on a combined country and ASN database rather than three separate products.

It is a product decision we are comfortable with. Having both fields in a single download is powerful. Many projects otherwise write separate code paths for country and ASN. A single file that carries both simplifies that work.

IPinfo Lite makes sense if you need both ASN and country data together and want daily updates.

You can use either field on its own. The flexibility is there. For most users, ASN is valuable metadata to have alongside country.

One thing worth testing: MaxMind’s accuracy degrades noticeably at the city level on the free tier, but their country-level data is solid.

One point worth clarifying: IPinfo Lite is not an accuracy compromised free tier. It is our standard country data, and it is more accurate than MaxMind’s paid country data.

The reason comes down to methodology. We use active measurement through our probe network to determine where IP addresses are actually located. Geofeeds and self published location data are useful, but they are not universal, so only a fraction of addresses are covered that way.

Our infrastructure and research fill that gap, which is what drives the accuracy difference at the country level.

What’s your actual use case here. Are you filtering by country, identifying infrastructure, or something else.

Both country and ASN are returned, so you have the flexibility to choose based on what you need.

— Abdullah | DevRel, IPinfo