Acunetix vs CAST Highlight comparison

The compared Invicti and CAST solutions aren't in the same category. Invicti is ranked #14 in AS , with an average rating of 7.9, and holds a 2.1% mindshare in the category. CAST is ranked #16 in SCA , with an average rating of 7.5, and holds a 1.2% mindshare. Additionally, 88% of Invicti users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 85% of CAST users who would recommend it.

Acunetix

Read 36 Acunetix reviews

6,676 Views
3,138 Comparison Views

88% willing to recommend

CAST Highlight

Read 7 CAST Highlight reviews

1,670 Views
651 Comparison Views

85% willing to recommend

Acunetix

CAST Highlight

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Acunetix and CAST Highlight based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Application Security Tools solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed Acunetix vs. CAST Highlight Report (Updated: September 2022).

Buyer's Guide

Acunetix vs. CAST Highlight

September 2022

Download the complete report

Helped 885,667 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Acunetix

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Security Tools (14th), Static Application Security Testing (SAST) (10th), Vulnerability Management (28th), DevSecOps (6th)

CAST Highlight

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Software Composition Analysis (SCA) (16th)

Mindshare comparison

While both are Security Software solutions, they serve different purposes. Acunetix is designed for Application Security Tools and holds a mindshare of 2.1%, down 2.5% compared to last year.
CAST Highlight, on the other hand, focuses on Software Composition Analysis (SCA), holds 1.2% mindshare, up 0.9% since last year.

Application Security Tools Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Acunetix	2.1%
SonarQube	16.3%
Checkmarx One	9.9%
Other	71.69999999999999%

Application Security Tools

Software Composition Analysis (SCA) Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
CAST Highlight	1.2%
Black Duck SCA	11.7%
Snyk	10.5%
Other	76.6%

Software Composition Analysis (SCA)

Featured Reviews

Rahul Kumar

Senior Engineer - Penetration Tester at a government with 10,001+ employees

Identifies vulnerabilities across bulk web applications but needs better support and cleaner reports

The best feature Acunetix offers is the centralized dashboard and the quality of reports it generates, which includes various options for selecting reports and developer options for directly sharing the reports with developers. The centralized dashboard of Acunetix gives visibility into the security aspects of mass applications; for instance, with more than 200 applications, it provides a valuable overview of findings and necessary fixes, along with a high-level summary that helps us achieve compliance through monthly and sometimes weekly scanning. In terms of reporting, Acunetix is excellent because it can generate different types of reports, such as an executive summary report, detailed reports, and developer reports that can be shared directly with developers. Acunetix positively impacts my organization by helping identify outdated libraries and applications, including legacy applications vulnerable to old attacks based on OWASP Top 10, thus aiding in compliance checks for PCI DSS and OWASP. Acunetix provides a centralized report with compliance-related aspects and a vulnerability timeline, effectively helping reduce vulnerabilities and save time.

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Jayanti Rode

Technical Associate Manager at Accenture

Identifies migration blockers and boosters while facing challenges with platform-specific roadblocks

The solution provides agnostic blockers for platforms as well as for containerization. Within that containerization, it offers generic blockers. However, my project might require it to provide Windows-specific blockers or Linux-specific blockers, as I often work with only one platform at a time. If I received categorization in containerization blockers, it would save time. Understanding only the OS-specific blockers means I would avoid resolving irrelevant issues, thus saving time. Initially, I receive a response from support, however, if there is involvement from R&D or other teams, it may take longer than expected. The support team is challenging when sharing source code. As this is a static code analysis tool, it sometimes requires source code for R&D. However, CAST clients may be restricted from sharing due to business logic and nondisclosure agreements. This creates a challenge, and I may have to share pseudo code or seek client approval, risking escalation.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"The solution is paying for itself, as our applications are more secure."

"I haven't seen reporting of that level in any other tool."

"Overall, the tool is efficient enough to identify and track your vulnerabilities and it's good for intelligence scanning purposes."

"The most important feature is that it's a web-based graphical user interface. That is a great addition. Also, the ability to schedule scans is great."

"Acunetix gives us code-level identification of vulnerabilities and a good understanding of the code-level vulnerability fixes, which is much more helpful for us because we can understand how to fix the vulnerabilities at the code level."

"The automated approach to these repetitive discovery attempts would take days to do manually and therefore it helps reduce the time needed to do an assessment."

"It's very user-friendly for the testing teams. It's very easy for them to understand things and to fix vulnerabilities."

"The solution is excellent at detecting SQL injection and cross-site scripting vulnerabilities."

More Acunetix pros

"CAST Highlight is easy to use and has a good dashboard."

"We are using CAST Highlight for the location because it's an indicator for us that can differentiate us from the other health insurance company, and we are using the indicator as proof of the quality of service for our application."

"It offers good performance."

"The way it tells you which codebase is more ready for the cloud and which codebase is less ready is very valuable, and it works seamlessly with most languages."

"The most valuable features of CAST Highlight are automation and speed."

"The most valuable features of the CAST Highlight are the interface and there are three notations that are very simple to understand and communicate with."

"The way it tells you which codebase is more ready for the cloud and which codebase is less ready is very valuable. It works seamlessly with most languages."

"In cloud migration, I use CAST highlight to identify blockers, which are the negative road patterns, and also the boosters, which are positive code patterns."

More CAST Highlight pros

Cons

"I believe Acunetix can improve customer support, as the dedicated support staff are often unfamiliar with problems and troubleshooting, leading to communication gaps that delay issue resolution."

"One of the biggest problems I've had with Acunetix is that it's hard to replicate things manually because you don't get the raw packet."

"You can't actually change your password after you've set it unless you go back into the administration account and you change it there. Thus, if you're locked out and don't remember your password, that's a thing."

"The costs for the licensing have changed and it's not in our favor which is why we're now looking at other options."

"Integration into other tools is very limited for Acunetix. While we're trying to incorporate a CI/CD process where we're integrating with JIRA and we're integrating with Jenkins and Chef, it becomes problematic."

"We have had issues during upgrades where their scans worked on some apps better with previous versions. Then, we had to work with their tech support, who were great, to get it fixed for the next version."

"There's a clear need for a reduction in pricing to make the service more accessible."

"The jargon used makes it difficult for project managers to understand the issues, and the technical explanations used make it difficult for developers to understand issues. These things should be simplified much more. That would be very helpful for us when explaining to them what needs to be fixed. The report output needs to be simplified."

More Acunetix cons

"The ease of configuration and customization could be improved in CAST Highlight."

"There's a bit of a learning curve at the outset."

"Its price should be better. It is a pretty costly tool. They have two products: CAST Highlight and CAST AIP. I would expect CAST Highlight to have the Help dashboard and the Engineering dashboard. These dashboards are currently a part of CAST AIP, and if these are made available in CAST Highlight, customers won't have to use two different products all the time."

"CAST Highlight is an expensive solution. However, CAST Highlight is less expensive than the CAST AIP, but it remains too expensive and the professional services from CAST are also too expensive."

"If I received categorization in containerization blockers, it would save time."

"The reports that describe the issues of concern are rather abstract and the issues should be more clearly described to the user."

"It is a pretty costly tool. A lot of customers are resistant to using it."

"Technical support could be better."

More CAST Highlight cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The cost is based on two types of licenses, ConsultLite, and ConsultPlus, as well as the number of domains that are scanned."

"When compared with other products, the pricing is a little bit high. But it gives value for the price. It serves the purpose and is worthwhile for the price we pay."

"The costs aren't very expensive. It costs around $3000 or $4000."

"The solution is expensive."

"Implementing Acunetix needs a medium or larger business agency, because you need some money to get Acunetix. It is costly, but if you care about your agency's security, then maybe it's a cost that might help you in the future."

"When we looked at all other vendors and what they were asking for, to provide a third of what Acunetix was capable of doing, it was an easy decision... But now that it's coming to a cost where it's line with market value, it becomes more of a competition... Acunetix is raising the cost of licensing. It's 3.5 times what we were initially quoted."

"The pricing and licensing are reasonable to a point. In order to run multiple scans at a time, we are going to have to purchase a 100 count license, which is an overkill. Though, compared to what we were paying for, the cost seems reasonable."

"The price is exceptionally high."

More Acunetix pricing and cost advice

"CAST Highlight is an expensive solution. However, CAST Highlight is less expensive than the CAST AIP, but it remains too expensive and the professional services from CAST are also too expensive. The high price is part of the problem with the CAST solutions."

"Basic support is included with the standard licensing feed but it can be upgraded for an additional cost."

"It is a pretty costly tool. A lot of customers are resistant to using it."

"CAST Highlight is an expensive solution."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

12%

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Government

Financial Services Firm

19%

Computer Software Company

Government

Outsourcing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	15
Midsize Enterprise	7
Large Enterprise	18

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	2
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	5

Questions from the Community

What is your primary use case for Acunetix Vulnerability Scanner?

My main use of Acunetix is to scan my web application. I mostly deal with web applications and with Acunetix Network Security Component, but I have not activated the network component before and wi...

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What advice do you have for others considering Acunetix Vulnerability Scanner?

I am still working with Acunetix, and we have even moved to their new platform, Invicti. I have requested a demo for Acunetix DeepScan technology, but I have yet to go through DeepScan. That was th...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Acunetix?

I would say the pricing is average, but still, it is higher than low.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for CAST Highlight?

The pricing of CAST Highlight was not considered expensive or cheap, and no specific comment was made about the setup cost.

See all answers

What needs improvement with CAST Highlight?

See all answers

What is your primary use case for CAST Highlight?

For CAST, I use it in cloud migration roadmap and in open source safety issues. These are my two main use cases.

See all answers

Comparisons

OWASP Zap vs Acunetix

Compared 10% of the time

PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional vs Acunetix

Compared 7% of the time

Invicti vs Acunetix

Compared 6% of the time

Veracode vs Acunetix

Compared 5% of the time

HCL AppScan vs Acunetix

Compared 4% of the time

More Acunetix Competitors

Snyk vs CAST Highlight

Compared 15% of the time

Veracode vs CAST Highlight

Compared 13% of the time

SonarQube vs CAST Highlight

Compared 13% of the time

Black Duck SCA vs CAST Highlight

Compared 12% of the time

Checkmarx One vs CAST Highlight

Compared 7% of the time

More CAST Highlight Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Acunetix

March 2026

Download Acunetix product report

Buyer's Guide

CAST Highlight

March 2026

Download CAST Highlight product report

Also Known As

AcuSensor

No data available

Overview

Acunetix Web Vulnerability Scanner is an automated web application security testing tool that audits your web applications by checking for vulnerabilities like SQL Injection, Cross site scripting, and other exploitable vulnerabilities.

Invicti

CAST Highlight is a SaaS software intelligence product for performing rapid application portfolio analysis. It automatically analyzes source code of hundreds of applications in a week for Cloud Readiness, Software Composition Analysis (Open Source risks), Resiliency, and Technical Debt. Objective software insights from automated source code analysis combined with built-in qualitative surveys for business context enable more informed decision-making about application portfolios.

CAST is the software intelligence category leader. CAST technology can see inside custom applications with MRI-like precision, automatically generating intelligence about their inner workings - composition, architecture, transaction flows, cloud readiness, structural flaws, legal and security risks. It’s becoming essential for faster modernization for cloud, raising the speed and efficiency of Software Engineering, better open source risk control, and accurate technical due diligence. CAST operates globally with offices in North America, Europe, India, China. Visit www.castsoftware.com.

CAST

Sample Customers

Joomla!, Digicure, Team Random, Credit Suisse, Samsung, Air New Zealand

Wells Fargo, Bank of NY Mellon, Northern Trust, Microsoft, Amazon, IBM, BMW, AT&T, US Army, US Air Force, US Navy, John Hancock, Marsh & McLennan, Ernst & Young, PwC, Volkswagen, Boston Consulting Group, London Stock Exchange, Telefonica, Saur France, Total Energies France, SNCF

Buyer's Guide

Acunetix vs. CAST Highlight

September 2022

Free Report: Acunetix vs. CAST Highlight

Find out what your peers are saying about Acunetix vs. CAST Highlight and other solutions. Updated: September 2022.

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