10 BEST Online Application Scanners To Detect Security Threats

In this review, we will compare the Top Online Application Scanners that detect security vulnerabilities and suggest actions to fix them:

No sane person can dispute the role that web applications play in our day-to-day lives. They are such an integral part of our modern lifestyles that it is impossible to imagine a future without them.

Needless to say, they have made our lives easy. However, not many realize that these ostensibly harmless applications might contain a backdoor that can allow attackers to sneak in and access information critical to you and your business.

Applications are always under attack from a wide variety of security threats. As such, it is important to make sure that they are impervious to flaws that could be exploited by malicious players online. This is where online application scanners, like the ones we are going to discuss here, come into play.

Online Application Scanners

Online Application Scanners aka Vulnerability Scanners, detect vulnerabilities hiding in your applications and suggest actions that can patch them for good.

In this tutorial, we will be discussing the Top Online Application Scanners that serve this purpose with impeccable finesse. We will take a deep dive into each of these solutions and find out what makes them some of the best online application scanners out there.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q #1) How do You Check Your Application’s Vulnerability?

Answer: An Application’s vulnerability can be detected by employing an online application vulnerability scanner. These tools scan every corner of your application and analyze all web pages and files that they can discover. A vulnerability scanner will then simulate an attack against an application and study the consequential results.

Q #2) How Do You Check your Server Security?

Answer: Although you can use a vulnerability scanner to check your server’s security, there are other effective ways to do so as well.

For instance, you can try applying security patches and updates using Kernel. Apply a software or hardware firewall, restrict root access, disable direct root logins, and detect file permission changes like fchecks, tripwire, etc.

Q #3) How Do You Check if Your Website is Safe?

Answer: You can learn whether or not a website is secure with just one glance at the website’s URL. If the URL of a website begins with “HTTPS” instead of “HTTP”, then the website is considered to be secured using an SSL or TLS certificate.

These certificates are capable of securing all data contained within a website as it is passed down from your browser straight to the website’s server.

Q #4) What is an SSL server Test?

Answer: An SSL server test, like its namesake, is undertaken to test the security of an SSL server. SSL server tests reveal whether the SSL server has been approved or has been set up correctly.

SSL Server Tests present their findings in the form of grades which indicate whether or not a website is safe based on the integrity of the SSL server it just tested.

Q #5) How do You Fix a Problem with a Website’s Security Certificate?

Answer: Security Certificates are used by browsers to specify whether a site is safe or not. If a website’s security certificate starts showing issues, you can start by verifying the data and time in Windows.

Alternatively, try to clear your internet history and cache. Check the security-related settings and try to restart the webpage again.

Q #6) What is the Best Online Application Scanner?

Answer: There is no shortage of good online application scanners out there. However, we believe that the following five are some of the best in the market today.

1. Invicti (formerly Netsparker)
2. Acunetix
3. Qualys Web App Scanning
4. Qualys SSL Server Test
5. Pentest-Tools

List of Top Online Application Scanners

Here is the list of popular web application scanners available:

1. Invicti (formerly Netsparker)
2. Acunetix
3. Indusface WAS
4. Intruder
5. ManageEngine Vulnerability Manager Plus
6. Qualys Web App Scanning
7. Qualys SSL Server Test
8. Pentest-Tools
9. Detectify
10. Mozilla Observatory
11. Quttera
12. UpGuard Web Scan
13. Veracode
14. Grabber
15. Vega
16. W3AF
17. Web Cookies Scanner
18. Probely

Comparing the Best Web Application Scanners

Name	Best For	Fees	Ratings
Invicti (formerly Netsparker)	Dynamic and Interactive Application Security Testing	Contact for Quote
Acunetix	Fast and User-Friendly Online Application Scanner	Contact for Quote
Indusface WAS	24/7 Expert Support and Zero False Positive Assurance.	Starts at $44/app/month, Premium plan – $199/app/month. Free plan also available.
Intruder	Continuous vulnerability management that saves time.	Contact for Quote
ManageEngine Vulnerability Manager Plus	Automatically detecting and fixing third-party application vulnerabilities.	Free edition available, Enterprise plan starting at $1195 per year. Contact for a professional plan quote.
Qualsys Web Application Scanning	Continuous App Discovery and Deep Scanning	Contact for Quote
Qualsys SSL Server Test	SSL Server Security Testing	Free
Pentest Tools	Light and Deep Scanning of web applications	Free 2 Tests, Pro Plan – $65/month, Pro Advanced – $130/month, Enterprise – $260/month

Let us review each tool in details-

#1) Invicti (formerly Netsparker)

Best for Dynamic and Interactive Application Security Testing.

Invicti utilizes an advanced crawling system that allows it to perform deep scans that can detect vulnerabilities that are otherwise hard to find. It operates on a Proof Based Scanning system to first verify a detected vulnerability and determine whether it is a false positive or not.

The software is capable of finding all your web assets, regardless of whether they’ve been lost or deleted. Its combined Dynamic and Interactive approach to scanning is ultimately what makes Invicti capable of detecting vulnerabilities accurately and fast. Another great thing about Invicti is its visual dashboard.

Apart from detecting common vulnerabilities like SQL injections and XSS, it can also perform security tests for misconfigurations. Invicti can also help you find security issues plaguing third-party products like Word Press. It also utilizes black-box security testing. As such, you can scan applications, regardless of the program or language used to create them.

Invicti also provides detailed documentation on the detected weakness, thus making it easier for security teams to pinpoint their location and initiate remediation efforts. You can also alter and define user permissions from the dashboard as well.

You can automatically create and assign tasks for managing vulnerabilities to specific security teams and developers. Moreover, Invicti integrates seamlessly with plenty of other third-party tools for an enhanced user experience.

Features

• Advanced Crawling
• DAST+IAST Scanning Approach
• Proof Based Scanning
• Seamless integration with current systems.
• Detailed documentation on detected vulnerability.

Verdict: Invicti’s ability to accurately detect vulnerabilities and automatically assign them to security teams for immediate remediation is why they are so high on our list. The platform leverages an attractive visual dashboard to report confirmed vulnerabilities with other critical details about them such as their location and threat-severity level.

Price: Contact for quote.

#2) Acunetix

Best for Fast and User-Friendly Online Application Scanner.

Acunetix is an intuitive and easy-to-use online application scanner that can perform lighting fast scans without overloading your server. As of today, the platform can detect over 7000 vulnerabilities.

These include common weaknesses like SQL injections, XSS, security misconfigurations, and more. The platform ensures the detected vulnerability is verified to avoid reporting false positives.

Moreover, the platform assigns threat severity levels, thus assisting security teams in prioritizing their response to vulnerabilities that pose an urgent threat. Acunetix also allows you to schedule scans at a specified date and time to initiate automatic assessments of your web applications.

The platform also leverages ‘Advanced Macro Recording’ technology to let you scan complex multi-level forms and password-protected areas of a website. Furthermore, Acunetix integrates seamlessly with tracking systems like Jira, GitHub, and many others to make the management of issues simple.

Features

• Advanced Macro Recording
• Verify Detected Vulnerability Before Reporting.
• Schedule Scans at a Specified Date and Time
• Prioritize Scan by assigning threat levels to detected issues.
• Generate comprehensive regulatory and compliance reports.

Verdict: Acunetix is a user-friendly, easy-to-set-up online application scanner that detects over 7000 different types of vulnerabilities with lightning-fast scans. Acunetix is capable of identifying false positives and even assigning threat severity levels to detected issues, thus making a developer’s job considerably simple.

Price: Contact for quote.

#3) Indusface WAS

Best for developers who want a complete vulnerability assessment with application audit (web, mobile and API), infrastructure scan, penetration testing and malware monitoring.

As far as cloud-based application scanners go, Indusface WAS represents the very best that our software industry has to offer. Indusface WAS allows users to perform both manual and automated scans to detect OWASP, business logic, malware, and other forms of vulnerabilities in web, mobile an API applications without any hassle.

The software excels at remediation guidance and comprehensive report generation as well. This makes the software ideal for developers. If an in-depth security audit is something you wish to perform, then Indusface WAS is again a great software for the job, thanks to its ability to spearhead deep and intelligent application scanning.

In addition to that, the 24/7 support you get from security experts on false positive removal and remediation guidance makes this tool worth every penny you spend on it.

Features:

• Zero false positive guarantee with unlimited manual validation of vulnerabilities found in the DAST scan report.
• 24X7 support to discuss remediation guidelines and proofs of vulnerabilities.
• Penetration testing for web, mobile and API apps.
• Free trial with a comprehensive single scan and no credit card required.
• Integration with Indusface AppTrana WAF to provide instant virtual patching with a zero false positive guarantee.
• Graybox scanning support with the ability to add credentials and then perform scans.
• Single dashboard for DAST scan and pen testing reports.
• Ability to automatically expand crawl coverage based on actual traffic data from the WAF system (in case AppTrana WAF is subscribed and used).
• Check for Malware infection, the reputation of the links in the website, defacement and broken links.

Verdict: There is so much to adore in this simple yet effective online application scanner. You’ll be able to detect almost all vulnerabilities that have been validated by respected institutions like OWASP and WASC. In addition, the 24/7 expert support offered here makes the software hard to ignore.

Price: Free plan available, $49/app/month for the advanced plan, $199/app/month for the premium plan billed yearly. A 14-day free trial is also available.

#4) Intruder

Best for Continuous vulnerability management that saves time.

In addition to 11,000+ infrastructure checks, Intruder’s dynamic application security testing (DAST) scanner performs web application checks including XSS, SQL Injection, CWE/SANS Top 25, Remote Code Execution, OS Command Injection and OWASP Top 10.

It performs thorough reviews of your web applications and websites, including single page applications (SPAs), to identify dangerous bugs which could have a severe business impact if not resolved.

Intruder’s authenticated web application scanning finds vulnerabilities which exist behind the login pages of your applications.

Each web application is different, but some of the most critical functionality exists behind a login page, such as the ability to add data to your account, edit data, delete data, upload files, interact with other users. As a result, a large percentage of the attack surface of an application can exist behind a login page.

Intruder also comes with multiple integrations that speed up issue detection and remediation processes and you can use its API to add Intruder into your CI/CD pipeline and optimise your security workflow. Intruder will also perform emerging threat scans when new issues arise.

Features:

• Carry out thorough web app scans.
• Perform emerging threat scans when new issues arise.
• Gain complete visibility across your websites, web applications, and underlying infrastructure.
• Comply with ISO 27001/27002, SOC 2 and Cyber Essentials.

Verdict: Intruder is a user-friendly, easy-to-try, buy-and-set-up online application scanner that detects over 11,000 different types of vulnerabilities. It cuts through the noise to identify false positives and assigns threat severity levels to detected issues, making it a sensible option for less-tech-savvy or time-constrained IT teams.

Price: Free 14-day trial for Pro plan, see website for prices, monthly or annual billing available

#5) ManageEngine Vulnerability Manager Plus

Best for Automatically detecting and fixing third-party application vulnerabilities.

Vulnerability Manager Plus will scan all applications, devices, and servers on your network to make sure they aren’t plagued by harmful vulnerabilities. If detected, the software prioritizes the vulnerability on the basis of its age, severity, and exploitability. The software then lets you employ out-of-the-box policies to comply with more than 75 benchmarks.

Vulnerability Manager Plus also shines a great deal when it comes to its patch management capabilities. You can count on the software to download, test, and deploy patches to fix more than 250 third-party applications.

Features:

• Automated patch management
• Vulnerability Assessment and Prioritization
• Mitigate Zero-Day Vulnerabilities
• Security misconfiguration management

Verdict: ManageEngine’s Vulnerability Manager Plus is perhaps the best of its kind when it comes to dealing with third-party application vulnerabilities. This is software you can rely on to keep your business protected 24/7 with continuous coverage, excellent vulnerability assessment, automated patch management, and efficient auditing.

Price: Vulnerability Manager Plus adheres to a flexible pricing structure. Its enterprise plan features an annual subscription that starts at $1195 for 100 workstations and a perpetual license that’ll cost $2987. A custom professional plan is also available upon request. A free edition with limited features and a 30 day free trial of the professional and enterprise plans are also available.

#6) Qualsys Web App Scanning

Best for Continuous App Discovery and Deep Scanning.

Qualsys is a robust online application scanner that performs continuous scans to discover all types of applications and the vulnerabilities they might harbor. The platform is fully cloud-based and can be scaled very easily to meet your business’s expanding IT infrastructure requirements.

Qualysys can identify and report vulnerabilities like Zero-Day threats. It presents you with detailed documentation on the detected vulnerability along with actionable insights that can help you remediate the situation. It comes with a central dashboard that displays scanned activity, the number of discovered infections, and more.

Features

• Centralized Dashboard
• Detailed documentation with insights to remediate the threat.
• Continuous Automated Scans
• Catalogs all discovered apps

Verdict: Qualsys Web App Scanner’s dynamic deep scanning feature allows it to detect all types of apps in your perimeter, internal environment, and under active development. It can also scan APIs and IoT’s as well for potential vulnerabilities. It is highly scalable and just for that reason, it earns its rightful place on this list.

Price: Contact for quote.

Website: Qualsys Web App Scanning

#7) Qualsys SSL Server Test

Best for SSL Server Security Testing.

Qualsys is a great online tool that can scan any SSL server on the public internet and tell you whether it is secure or not. This is a simple platform that greets you with a textbox the moment you open its home page. Qualsys requires you to paste the URL you would like to perform a deep scan on.

It performs a quick and thorough analysis to test the strength of the SSL server, after which it assigns it a grade. The highest grade it delivers is A+, which means the SSL Server is secure and doesn’t harbor any issues.

Features

• Deep Scan
• Free-to-Use
• Identifies Known Issues
• Grade based security assessment

Verdict: Qualsys is a simple web-based platform to perform a quick SSL Server Security test. The grades it assigns at the end of each scan convey whether a website is secure or not. You can get detailed documentation and identify known issues by allowing Qualsys SSL Server Test to perform deep scans.

Price: Free

Website: Qualsys SSL Server Test

#8) Pentest Tools

Best for Web-Based Light and Full Online Vulnerability Scanner.

Pentest Tools is a web-based simple online website scanner that can perform quick scans to detect vulnerabilities in a website. The platform gives you two options for scanning vulnerabilities. Opting for light scanning will detect issues like outdated servers, insecure HTTP headers, and inappropriate cookie settings.

A Full Scan, on the other hand, performs a comprehensive scan that reveals major vulnerabilities like SQL injections, local file inclusion, and XSS among many other commonly reported weaknesses. You can also schedule your scans or perform scans on multiple websites or applications all at once with Pentest Tools.

Features

• Light and Deep Scan
• Attack Surface Mapping
• Bulk Scan
• Schedule scan

Verdict: Pentest Tool is an intuitive online application scanner that can detect both benign and severe vulnerabilities in your system. The platform allows you to perform two free scans, thus allowing you to test its mettle before subscribing to its premium plan.

Price: Free 2 Tests, Pro Plan – $65/month, Pro Advanced – $130/month, Enterprise – $260/month.

Website: Pentest Tools

#9) Detectify

Best for Accurately Find Known and Unknown Vulnerabilities in an Application.

Detectify is a cloud-based platform that performs continuous scans on web applications to accurately detect hidden vulnerabilities. Not only can Detectify identify known vulnerabilities like SQL injections and XSS, but it can also accurately detect undocumented weaknesses as well.

The platform facilitates continuous deep scanning in development, staging, and production environments. As such, it generates comprehensive reports that also contain insights to eliminate vulnerabilities effectively.

Features

• Continuous Deep Scan
• Scan for Known and Unknown Security Threats
• Get comprehensive guidance on how to fix detected weaknesses
• Discover all web assets

Verdict: Detectify is a crowd-sourced cloud-based online application scanner that can detect known and undocumented threats with utmost accuracy and speed. The platform is ideal for small businesses and can assist security teams and developers in remediating vulnerabilities with detailed reports on detected system vulnerabilities.

Price: Deep Scan – $85/month, Asset Monitoring – $420/month.

Website: Detectify

#10) Mozilla Observatory

Best for Online Website Scanning and Grade Based Security Testing.

Mozilla is a free-to-use online website scanner that performs deep scans on sites to test their strength. The platform scans websites to find preventive measures against vulnerabilities such as cookie compromise, XSS, and man-in-the-middle attacks.

To initiate scanning, paste the URL in its home-page text box, and click on ‘Scan’. The platform will perform a deep scan and assigns a grade that informs you whether the site is secure or not. Mozilla Observatory is designed only to test websites and not API endpoints.

Features

• Cloud-Based and Free to Use.
• Adequately configurable
• Perform deep scans on websites.
• Grade-based security testing

Verdict: Mozilla Observatory is capable of scanning websites only and is limited in its capability to detect vulnerabilities. However, it is free to use and its grade-based security testing system is a quick and comprehensive way of testing whether a site is secure or not.

Price: Free

Website: Mozilla Observatory

#11) Quterra

Best for Anti-Malware/Vulnerability Detection software.

Quterra offers a comprehensive list of tools to help you maintain the security of your website. It performs many roles. It can be a good anti-malware software, serve as a formidable application firewall and assist you with domain blacklist checks.

It is also quick and accurate when it comes to scanning applications and websites for vulnerabilities. The solution is constantly updating itself, thus making it capable of detecting both known and undocumented vulnerabilities. It also suggests appropriate fixes by leveraging information from seasoned security experts.

Features

• Deep and Light Scans
• Anti-Malware
• Domain Blacklist Check
• Expert Assistance in Vulnerability Patching.

Verdict: Quterra may position itself as an anti-malware platform, but it is quite effective as a vulnerability detector as well. It also makes patching security threats simple by referring to insights coming straight from seasoned security experts.

Price: Free, $10/month – basic plan, $179/year – premium security & $249/year – emergency plan.

Website: Quterra

#12) UpGuard Web Scan

Best for Free Security Testing.

UpGuard is an intuitive vulnerability detector that can perform thorough assessments of your system to find vulnerabilities. It allows you to prioritize your response to threats by assigning threat severity levels to all detected vulnerabilities.

It generates comprehensive reports with analytics that help security teams pinpoint the location of the breach. There are actionable insights in the report as well and this could help seal the breaches before an attacker can find them.

Features

• Full Attack Surface Monitoring
• Group Risks into Categories
• Data-Driven Remediation process
• Free Website Security Testing

Verdict: UpGuard has all the makings of a good web asset discovery and vulnerability scanning tool. However, it is its free website security testing feature that serves as its major USP.

The platform can quickly perform a deep scan of your site to check whether it is secure or not. This is an easy-to-use tool where the security teams won’t have any trouble operating. However, it can be pretty expensive as a continuous application scanner.

Price: Free Website Security Testing, $5,249/yr for the basic plan, $15,749/yr for the starter plan, $36,749/yr.

Website: UpGuard

#13) Veracode

Best for Discover, Monitor, and Secure Web Applications.

Veracode is another intuitive online platform that allows you to discover, monitor, and secure all types of web applications from imminent security threats. This is a fully automated software that integrates seamlessly into a software’s development lifecycle. The platform is capable of detecting and cataloging all your web applications.

It can be used to perform lightweight scans to find thousands of vulnerabilities in no time. Veracode can also help you run authenticated scans on critical applications while continuously monitoring the security of your entire IT infrastructure.

Features

• Fully Automated
• Continuous Scan
• Run Authenticated and lightweight scans.
• Catalog detected for web applications

Verdict: Veracode is a fine online application scanner that can discover and catalog all types of web applications at your best. By offering enhanced accuracy, insightful analytics, and unified results, Veracode simplifies the process of application security testing for developers and security teams.

Price: Contact for quote.

Website: Veracode

Other Web Application Vulnerability Scanners

#14) Grabber

Best for Free Web Application Scanning.

Grabber is a free web application scanner that can detect some critical vulnerabilities found hidden in an application. It is not quite as effective as all the tools we’ve already mentioned above but is nonetheless accurate and fast while detecting the weaknesses it can.

This is a tool that we recommend to scan small websites only. It can scan websites for preventive measures against threats like SQL injections, XSS, file inclusion, Ajax Check and Backup files check.

Price: Free

Website: Grabber

#15) Vega

Best for Open Source Web Scanner.

Vega is a free, open-source web scanner that can detect many commonly known vulnerabilities like SQL Injections, XSS, security misconfigurations, and many others.

Vega can also be used to strengthen the security of TLS servers by helping you probe SSL server configurations. Vega runs smoothly on Linux, OSX, and Windows devices. The automated scanner makes it extremely fast when performing scans.

Price: Free

Website: Vega Scanner

#16) W3AF

Best for Open Source Vulnerability Scanning.

W3AF is another great open-source website vulnerability scanner. Currently, W3AF is capable of identifying over 200 weaknesses and suggesting appropriate remediation actions to fix them once and for all.

You can build an entire attack and audit framework that serves the sole purpose of detecting and fixing known as well as some unknown vulnerabilities with W3AF.

Price: Free

Website: W3AF

#17) Probely

Best for Web Applications and API Scanners.

Using Probely is like hiring a virtual security expert that performs continuous scans to detect and fix vulnerabilities. This is a fully automated web application and API scanner that can detect all commonly reported vulnerabilities like SQL injections, XSS, and more.

Moreover, it also harbors a visual dashboard that displays the location of detected vulnerabilities and how severe they are as a threat. It integrates seamlessly with most CI/CD tracking systems to accurately detect vulnerabilities.

Price: Free plan available, €35/month for the basic plan, €69 per month for the pro plan, and €399 per month for premium.

Website: Probely

Conclusion

It is an undeniable fact that applications have made our lives easier today. However, this shouldn’t serve as an excuse to ignore their security. Web applications might contain a weakness that serves as a backdoor for attackers to get in and access sensitive information.

It is imperative to have security practices implemented that continuously scan these applications to weed out vulnerabilities proactively. This is exactly what each of the above-mentioned online application scanners does.

From automated scanning, to threat assignment and patch deployment, application vulnerability scanners can perform them all and do more to strengthen the security of your enterprise’s entire IT portfolio.

As per our recommendation, if you are looking for a fully automated, comprehensive, and scalable online application scanner then look no further than Acunetix or Invicti. For quick website security testing, Qualsys SSL Server Test will suffice.

Research Process

• Time Taken To Research And Write This Article: 15 Hours
• Total Online Application Scanners Researched: 30
• Total Online Application Scanners Shortlisted: 14