10 Best AppScan Alternatives To Patch App Vulnerabilities

Here we review the top AppScan Alternatives with comparison to help you identify the best AppScan Competitor to fix application vulnerabilities:

Featuring an intuitive DevSecOps system, HCL AppScan can easily pinpoint and patch application vulnerabilities. It is one of those intuitive tools that developers can use to build security throughout their SDLC. It offers best-in-class security testing tools that ensure your applications aren’t harboring a hidden weakness that an attacker can exploit.

It is also excellent when generating compliance and regulatory reports. Currently, the tool comes with different packages – Cloud, Enterprise, Standard, and Source. Despite its powerful scan engine, HCL AppScan may not be everyone’s cup of tea.

As requirements and needs vary from business to business, some may find AppScan’s offerings, especially regarding its features, insufficient. There have also been complaints in the past about AppScan’s failure to detect more false positives.

AppScan Alternatives Review

Fortunately, AppScan isn’t the only application security testing tool in the market that can accurately detect and fix app vulnerabilities. We know of 10 similar tools that can match AppScan in quality and surpass it in many other key areas of security testing.

So, without much further ado, let’s look at the best AppScan alternatives enlisted and explained in this tutorial that are being widely used today.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q #1) What is AppScan used for?

Answer: Depending on what version of the tool you use, AppScan utilizes dynamic, interactive, static, and open source scanning to identify, monitor and remediate application vulnerabilities.

It is designed specifically to keep the needs of security experts and penetration testers in mind. It arguably has one of the most powerful scan engines in the world, which helps it accurately detect vulnerabilities in no time. Most large-scale enterprises use AppScan to perform continuous automated scans of their web services and applications.

Q #2) How much does AppScan cost?

Answer: Currently, the standard version of AppScan will cost you around $11000 per year. This is, of course, the starting price, and the rate will vary as you unlock more features. There is a free trial here as well, which one can avail of for a limited period and with limited features. You are required to contact AppScan representatives directly to get a quote.

Q #3) What are the different products available in the HCL AppScan family?

Answer: As mentioned before, AppScan offers multiple products, each with a very different approach to security testing. First, you have ‘AppScan on Cloud’ that can perform static, dynamic, and interactive testing on web, mobile and open-source software. Then there is the ‘AppScan Enterprise’, which can perform large-scale, multi-page security scans.

‘AppScan Source’ is known for its ability to identify vulnerabilities at the earliest stages of SDLC. Finally, you have the ‘AppScan Standard’, which can only perform dynamic application security tests.

Q #4) What is IAST?

Answer: IAST, also known as interactive application security testing, is a method wherein a code is analyzed for vulnerabilities while an automated test runs the app, human tester, or any other activity. Such types of tests can reveal security vulnerabilities in real-time. This is an ideal method for those who do not want to add extra time to their CI/CD pipeline.

Q #5) What is the best AppScan alternative?

Answer: Based on popular customer reception, the following are some of the best AppScan Alternatives available today:

• Invicti (formerly Netsparker)
• Acunetix
• Burp Suite
• Veracode
• SonarQube

List of Top AppScan Alternatives

Here is a list of remarkably popular AppScan competitors:

1. Indusface WAS
2. Invicti (formerly Netsparker)
3. Acunetix
4. Intruder
5. ManageEngine Vulnerability Manager Plus
6. Burp Suite
7. Veracode
8. SonarQube
9. Checkmarx
10. Appknox
11. Qualys WAS
12. Micro Focus Fortify On Demand
13. Synopsys Coverity

Comparing Some of the Best AppScan Competitors

Name	Best For	Fees	Ratings
Indusface WAS	Providing deep and intelligent web application scanning.	Basic plan is free, Advanced: $49/app/month, Premium: $199/app/month.
Invicti (formerly Netsparker)	Automated Vulnerability Verification with Greatly Reduced False Positives	Contact for Quote
Acunetix	Fast Scanning and Easy setup	Contact for Quote
Intruder	Simplifying your vulnerability management and saving time.	Starting at $113/month
ManageEngine Vulnerability Manager Plus	Vulnerability scanning and assessment	Free Edition, Professional Quote Based Plan, Enterprise plan starting at $1195 per year.
Burp Suite	Security and penetration testing	Free plan available, Professional Edition - $399. Enterprise Edition with three Plans - $5595 per year for the Starter plan, $11,580 per year for Grow plan, $23550 per year for Accelerate plan.
Veracode	Dynamic and Static Application Security Testing	Contact for Quote
SonarQube	Static Application Security Testing	Free and Open-Source community edition, Contact for Quote for Premium Editions of the platform.

Best AppScan Alternatives review:

#1) Indusface WAS

Best for providing deep and intelligent web application scanning.

Indusface WAS is a fully managed application risk detection solution. Its unlimited scanning capabilities give you complete coverage of OWASP Top 10 vulnerabilities. The solution provides the assurance for zero-false-positives and 24×7 support.

Features:

• Indusface WAS provides a comprehensive report along with remediation guidance.
• There will be comprehensive coverage with its proprietary scanner.
• It has features to verify blacklisting tracking on popular search engines and on other platforms.
• It performs business logic vulnerability checks.

Verdict: Indusface WAS is efficient with the detection of the most common application vulnerabilities that are validated by OWASP and WASC. It can identify new vulnerabilities that can be the outcome of application changes & updates.

Price: Indusface WAS has three pricing plans, Premium ($199 per app per month), Advance ($49 per app per month), and Basic (Free forever). All these prices are for annual billing. You can try the Advance plan for free.

#2) Invicti (formerly Netsparker)

Best for automated vulnerability verification with reduced false positives.

Invicti is a powerful application security testing tool that allows you to automate security throughout your entire SDLC. Its advanced crawling features can cover every corner of your web assets. This, along with its combined DAST and IAST scanning approach, makes Invicti a fast and accurate vulnerability detector.

The platform can scan any type of API, web service, and application, regardless of what framework, program, and language were used to build it. A key area where Invicti outshines AppScan is in its ability to identify false positives. The tool verifies all potential threats in an open, read-only manner and reports only confirmed vulnerabilities.

The tool also assigns threat-severity levels to each detected weakness. Security teams can separate high-threat vulnerabilities from other weaknesses that don’t pose an urgent risk. Its visual dashboard is another highlight. The dashboard gives you a holistic snapshot of all your scanned activity, identified assets, and vulnerabilities.

The dashboard can manage user permissions or assign vulnerabilities to specific security teams for remediation. You also get detailed documentation on the detected vulnerability, thus making their eventual remediation effortless. The software integrates seamlessly with most current systems like Jira, GitLab, and GitHub.

Features:

• Proof based scanning
• DAST+IAST scanning
• Detailed reports on detected vulnerability
• Integrates seamlessly with third-party tools

Verdict: Operating on advanced crawling technology, Invicti can scan any type of web application, service, or API to accurately detect all types of vulnerabilities in no time. It features a much better vulnerability verification system than AppScan. It is also visually impressive and can generate comprehensive reports, which makes patching vulnerabilities simple.

Price: Contact for quote

#3) Acunetix

Best for lightning-fast scanning and easy set-up.

Acunetix is a user-friendly online application security scanner that is easy to run and requires no lengthy set-ups. It can perform lightning-fast scans on all types of websites, applications, and APIs without overloading the server. It can detect over 7000 different types of vulnerabilities, which include both common and undocumented weaknesses.

It verifies all detected vulnerabilities to ensure no false positives are reported. It also features an Advanced Macro Recording technology, which makes it capable of detecting password-protected pages and complex multi-level forms.

Its centralized visual dashboard is also very impressive, providing stats and graphs pertaining to performed scans, identified assets, and detected vulnerabilities.

You can easily schedule full and incremental scans with Acunetix based on your configured date and time. Acunetix also categorizes threats based on threat-severity level. Security teams know which threats to prioritize. It also integrates seamlessly with CI/CD systems for enhanced performance.

Features:

• Centralized visual dashboard
• Advanced macro recording
• Verify vulnerabilities to reduce false positives
• Schedule and prioritize scans

Verdict: With its fast scans and easy setup, Acunetix is undoubtedly one of the best alternatives we have to AppScan today. It can scan any type of application or website and detect over 7000 different types of vulnerabilities. It also makes sure only confirmed weaknesses are reported, thus saving time and money on costly vulnerability management.

Price: Contact for quote

#4) Intruder

Best for Simplifying your vulnerability management and saving time.

Intruder’s DAST scanner provides the same level of security enjoyed by banks and government agencies with the leading scanning engines under the hood. Trusted by over 2,500 companies worldwide, it has been designed with speed, versatility and simplicity in mind.

The process of vulnerability management can be regulated through Intruder’s intuitive and user-friendly dashboard. A user can integrate the scanner with CI/CD tools to manage vulnerabilities without changing the usual workflow of their business.

Reports are ready to prove compliance and certification such as SOC2 and ISO 27001 as vulnerabilities are detected.

Features:

• Detect over 140,000 vulnerabilities including infrastructure and web app weaknesses such as SQL Injections, XSS, etc.
• Integrate with your current systems for built-in vulnerability management functionality.
• Scan new builds automatically with the help of modern CI tools, like Jenkins.
• Easily integrate with AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, Teams, Slack and Jira.

Verdict: Intruder provides comprehensive scanning capabilities and features. It is a versatile and powerful tool that can scan web applications for a wide range of weaknesses. If you’re looking for a solution that will keep your web apps and APIs safe and is easy to use, look no further, Intruder has you covered.

Price: Free 14-day trial for Pro plan, transparent and flexible pricing, monthly or annual billing available. The plans are as follows:

• Essential: $113/month
• Pro: $182/month
• Custom plans are also available

#5) ManageEngine Vulnerability Manager Plus

Best for Vulnerability scanning and assessment.

With Vulnerability Manager Plus, you get an end-to-end tool that’ll protect your infrastructure against OS, third-party, and zero-day vulnerabilities. The software is quite great at detecting system misconfigurations and fixing them proactively before any harm is caused. The software is exceptional at customizing, orchestrating, and automating the entire patching process.

Features:

• Vulnerability Assessment
• Compliance Assurance
• High-risk software audit
• Zero-day threat mitigation
• Automated patch management

Verdict: Vulnerability Manager Plus is a powerful multi-OS vulnerability management and compliance tool that’ll help you identify real threats from a bunch of detected vulnerabilities. This ability to prioritize vulnerabilities and impeccable automation is what earns it a place on our list.

Price: There are three pricing. There is a free edition with limited features, a professional edition that’s quote-based, and the enterprise plan that starts at $1195 per year for 100 workstations. A perpetual license of the enterprise plan can also be bought, starting at $2987. A 30-day free trial is also available.

#6) Burp Suite

Best for security and penetration testing.

Burp Suite is a web application security scanner that is often used by penetration testers. It offers an impressive visual dashboard that smartly uses graphs and stats to paint an accurate picture of your web asset’s security. Burp Suite is especially useful in identifying and fixing exotic and zero-day vulnerabilities.

It automatically classifies weaknesses based on their threat level so your security teams know which vulnerability poses a higher or lower threat to your infrastructure. Its report generating capabilities are also excellent. It can reduce false positives as well, however, the verification process herein is manual.

Features:

• Attractive visual dashboard
• Automated, continuous scanning
• Detailed technical and compliance report generation
• Seamless CI/CD system integration

Verdict: Burp Suite offers a powerful application security testing experience to its users. It is accurate and keeps your systems secure 24/7 with continuous automated scans. It can be expensive and the manual threat verification process might be tedious for some. However, its excellent report generating and seamless integration outweigh its shortcomings.

Price: Free plan available, Professional Edition – $399. Enterprise Edition with three Plans – $5595 per year for the Starter plan, $11,580 per year for Grow plan, $23550 per year for Accelerate plan.

Website: Burp Suite

#7) Veracode

Best for Dynamic and Static Application Security Testing.

Veracode is an online application scanner that utilizes static and dynamic security testing methods to ferret out vulnerabilities.

In fact, its combined DAST+SAST approach to testing makes it an ideal solution for developers who want to build security throughout a software’s development lifecycle. It can also detect open-source vulnerabilities with high accuracy due to its ‘Software Composition Analysis’ feature.

Its visual dashboard gives you a holistic snapshot of all your assets at all times. The scans being performed by Veracode are continuous, thus ensuring vulnerabilities are detected immediately before an attacker can find them. It is also great with its report generating capabilities.

Features:

• Detailed and comprehensive report generation
• Centralized visual dashboard
• Software composition analysis
• Combined Static and Dynamic security testing

Verdict: Thanks to its dynamic, static, and open-source security testing approach, Veracode can detect all types of vulnerabilities accurately. It is extremely fast in the scans it performs and detailed with the reports it generates. This is definitely one of the better alternatives we have to AppScan.

Price: Contact for quote

Website: Veracode

#8) SonarQube

Best for Static Application Security testing.

SonarQube utilizes static application security testing to ferret out vulnerabilities and fix them. The tool allows developers to detect vulnerabilities in the code review stage itself, hence contributing to the building of a secure, robust application. It provides rapid feedback to developers so they can write secure codes that are impervious to errors.

The platform also provides a detailed description of the detected vulnerability. It also highlights why a code might be at risk. SonarQube also offers significant coverage against vulnerabilities cited in the OWASP Top 10 List.

Features:

• Static security testing
• Detailed documentation of detected vulnerability
• Seamless integrations
• Supports 24 programming languages

Verdict: SonarQube is an ideal solution for developers due to its utilization of static application security testing. This allows developers to catch a bug or any other type of vulnerability earlier in a software’s development stage. It even provides rapid feedback so developers can write secure codes which have little to no flaws in them.

Price: Free and open-source community edition. Contact for quote for Premium Editions of the platform.

Website: SonarQube

#9) Checkmarx

Best for supports numerous programming languages.

Checkmarx leverages static application security testing to automatically scan un-compiled source code. As such, developers can detect thousands of application vulnerabilities in the most common coding frameworks and languages. The tool also enforces open-source security policies as part of software development to replace or solve vulnerable components of an application.

The platform can also ferret out vulnerabilities during functional testing with the help of seamless QA automation and CI/CD system integration. Checkmarx also features a comprehensive Dev Education system, which can be harnessed to train developers in writing better codes.

Features:

• Supports many coding frameworks and languages
• Seamless CI/CD integration
• Performs composition analysis
• Easy to read reports with detailed insights

Verdict: If you are a developer, then you will find plenty to admire in Checkmarx. It is not only a great tool to detect vulnerabilities but also helps developers write better, more secure codes through the feedback and analysis it provides. Its ability to find vulnerabilities in the most common coding framework and languages makes it a perfect ally for software developers.

Price: Contact for quote

Website: Checkmarx

#10) AppKnox

Best for mobile application security testing.

AppKnox is an on-demand platform that specializes in mobile application security testing. AppKnox detects and fixes security vulnerabilities in a mobile app before it can be deployed successfully into the world. The platform performs thorough tests and can detect the most common and undocumented vulnerabilities.

Its reporting is also very comprehensive, using graphs and stats to exhibit scanned activity, detected vulnerabilities, and how severe they are as a threat. The platform performs static and dynamic security testing to accurately detect threats. Moreover, AppKnox can also scan APIs and detect vulnerabilities in them as well.

Features:

• Dynamic and Static Application Security
• Scans APIs
• Research-driven remediation
• Penetration testing

Verdict: If you want to successfully launch a mobile application, then AppKnox is the platform you go to make sure your application isn’t harboring a vulnerability. The platform can detect common as well as unknown vulnerabilities and provide comprehensive guidelines to remediate them. Its scans are accurate and fast. It can also scan APIs to make sure they are free from vulnerabilities.

Price: Contact for quote

Website: AppKnox

#11) Qualsys Web Application Scanner

Best for automatically detect and catalog all web assets.

Qualsys is a cloud-based application security scanner that is known for its ability to automatically detect and catalog applications. It can crawl every corner of your system’s infrastructure to identify assets, regardless of whether they are hidden or lost.

Automated cataloging also helps security teams prioritize their response to take care of threats that are more severe or urgent in nature.

Another feature that stands out in Qualsys is its dynamic deep scanning. Its deep scanning can help you identify all types of common and undocumented vulnerabilities. It is especially useful to manage zero-day vulnerabilities. Qualsys WAS also performs scans on IoT services and mobile APIs as well to keep them secure.

Features:

• Web asset tagging
• Comprehensive application discovery
• Dynamic deep scanning
• IoT and mobile API testing

Verdict: Qualsys WAS shines because of its advanced web crawling and dynamic deep scanning capabilities. It can detect almost all known and unknown vulnerabilities out there. It is also great as IoT and mobile API scanner.

Price: Contact for quote

Website: Qualsys Web Application Scanner

#12) Micro Focus Fortify On Demand

Best for Dynamic, Interactive, Static and Mobile Security Testing.

Fortify is a cloud-based on-demand security testing platform that allows you to build security across your entire software development lifecycle. Fortify’s combination of static, dynamic, interactive, and mobile security testing makes it one of the most accurate and fast tools to perform application security assessments with.

Fortify also generates excellent technical and compliance reports. It also verifies a vulnerability to ensure the number of false positives is reduced. It also provides valuable feedback to developers that can help them write better and more secure codes.

Features:

• Combined DAST+IAST+SAST+MAST
• Automated vulnerability verification
• Rapid feedback to help developers write secure codes
• Comprehensive report generation

Verdict: Fortify is yet another tool that is designed to help developers write secure codes and perform security testing to ferret out vulnerabilities early in a software’s development lifecycle. It is also quite impressive to reduce the rate of false positives.

Price: Contact for quote

Website: Micro Focus Fortify On Demand

#13) Synopsis Covertify

Best for Static Application Security Testing.

Synopsis Covertify is another great tool that helps developers identify vulnerabilities in software in the early stages of development. Developers can use this platform to track and manage risks across their entire portfolio. The platform performs continuous scans to detect and fix issues while the software is still under development.

It also generates detailed technical and regulatory reports to ensure developers are complying with security and coding standards. Developers can get results in real-time with insights that help them remediate issues for good.

Features:

• Continuous automated scanning
• Detailed compliance and technical reports
• Actionable insights to initiate remediation actions
• Seamless integration with issue tracking, CI, and SCM tools

Verdict: Synopsis Covertify employs static application security testing to help developers detect and fix issues while the application is still under development. It also helps them remain compliant with expected regulatory standards with the help of easy-to-read compliance reports.

Price: Contact for quote

Website: Synopsis Covertify

Conclusion

AppScan features a powerful scan engine and combines multiple testing methods to accurately detect all types of vulnerabilities. It can provide cover for almost all types of applications. However, it isn’t infallible. Businesses may encounter bottlenecks with AppScan that ultimately leaves their specific needs unsatisfied.

Fortunately, AppScan isn’t the only software on this planet that can perform robust application security testing. All of the above platforms not only match AppScan in terms of their functionality but also surpass it in other key areas pertaining to security testing.

Further Reading =>> Compare SAST vs DAST and IAST vs RASP

As for our recommendation, if you are looking for tools that reduce false positives with automated verification, then look no further than Invicti. For a tool that is easily configurable and can detect thousands of vulnerabilities accurately, we suggest you give Acunetix a try.

Research Process:

• We spent 13 hours researching and writing this article so you can have summarized and insightful information on which AppScan Alternatives will best suit you.
• Total AppScan Alternatives researched – 25
• Total AppScan Alternatives shortlisted – 10