No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

Acunetix vs Checkmarx One vs Qualys Web Application Scanning comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
6.6
Entities saw 300% ROI with reduced risk, time savings, cost reduction, and improved security, justifying continued tool use.
Sentiment score
5.6
Checkmarx One enhances security by automating vulnerability detection, reducing costs, and improving development efficiency through CI/CD integration.
Sentiment score
2.5
Qualys Web Application Scanning delivers positive ROI, competitive licensing, scalability, and reduces failure rates with 70% time-saving automation.
It saves a significant amount of time by covering attack surfaces.
Information Security Engineer at Tübitak Bilgem
I have seen a return on investment, as Acunetix helps reduce the man-days and effort needed for scanning bulk applications through automated assessments.
Senior Engineer - Penetration Tester at a government with 10,001+ employees
Overall, between the fast scanning, automation, automatic reporting, and easy detection, it has reduced manual effort enough that we did not need an extra reviewer, even as our codebase or team size grew.
Senior GenAI Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Based on my interactions with the clients, I can tell that there is a return on investment because if something is not profitable and it's not helping to save costs or vulnerabilities, clients wouldn't come back to renew their license year after year.
Chief Technology Officer at 3CS Aquarah Limited
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.5
Acunetix support is responsive and helpful, but response times vary, with some delays for high-severity issues noted.
Sentiment score
7.0
Checkmarx One support is praised for quick responses and knowledgeable staff, despite some reporting delays in technical support.
Sentiment score
3.8
Customer service is generally positive but inconsistent, with some noting efficiency while others suggest improvements in speed and engagement.
For high-severity issues, they reach out within two to three hours, and for critical issues, a response is received within 15 minutes.
Lead Cybersecurity at TBO
The technical support from Invicti is very good and fast.
Information Security Engineer at Tübitak Bilgem
Support staff not being familiar with the problem.
Senior Engineer - Penetration Tester at a government with 10,001+ employees
If you raise a support case with Checkmarx, it is handled smoothly.
ML Engineer - Specialist at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
The customer support team is amazing and they provide on-phone call, email support, and on-website support.
Senior Solution Architect | L3+ Systems & Cloud Engineer | SRE Specialist at Canada Cloud Solution
I have relied on Checkmarx One customer support hundreds of times for several things, and Checkmarx One support is very proactive and very responsive.
Chief Technology Officer at 3CS Aquarah Limited
They have various options in the vulnerability management process, and when we initially bought our license, we didn't realize we needed PCI for better results, which isn't included in the default configurations.
Security Officer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Once we purchase the license, we have access to top-notch support.
Team Lead, Cyber Security at Uridium Technologies
I have dealt with Qualys's technical support, and any enhancements are challenging.
Senior Security Engineer at Charter Communications
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.9
Acunetix is praised for scalability across various environments, despite some dynamic scan issues and the need for Linux support.
Sentiment score
7.0
Checkmarx One is scalable for large workloads, but some users report challenges with configurations and licensing requirements.
Sentiment score
7.2
Qualys Web Application Scanning offers scalable cloud integration but faces challenges with concurrent scan limits and report limitations.
Acunetix can handle increasing workloads and more applications easily.
Senior Engineer - Penetration Tester at a government with 10,001+ employees
Approximately four billion lines of code are being scanned monthly.
Cyber Security Expert at Nestle
Since it is cloud-based, the infrastructure and PaaS, IaaS, and SaaS are taken care of by the cloud marketplace.
Senior Solution Architect | L3+ Systems & Cloud Engineer | SRE Specialist at Canada Cloud Solution
Checkmarx One's scalability has changed my organization because the strong collaboration between the development and security team helps us to do things much faster.
Senior GenAI Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
My concern remains the lack of deep dive analysis and that it produces similar vulnerability results as other tools such as Nessus based on version checks instead of real impact checks.
Security Officer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
It is licensed for assets, so we just contact the team for additional licenses if needed.
Team Lead, Cyber Security at Uridium Technologies
At one point, there was a limitation on reporting for 100,000 assets at a time.
Senior Security Engineer at Charter Communications
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.1
Acunetix offers stable, reliable scans with minimal issues and high satisfaction, despite occasional upgrade glitches and initial speed concerns.
Sentiment score
7.3
Checkmarx One is generally stable but faces issues with large codebases, memory use, and session inconsistencies.
Sentiment score
7.9
Users praise Qualys Web Application Scanning for its stability, reliability, minimal bugs, and consistently high-performance ratings.
I would rate the stability of this solution a nine on a scale of 1 to 10 where one is low stability and 10 is high.
Specialist Leader at Deloitte
Checkmarx One is often down when the cloud provider experiences issues.
Cyber Security Expert at Nestle
 

Room For Improvement

Acunetix needs improvements in speed, accuracy, usability, integration, and support to enhance functionality and user satisfaction.
Checkmarx One needs enhancements in accuracy, speed, integration, UI, support, pricing, and features for enterprise usability.
Qualys Web Application Scanning needs improvements in detection, usability, integration, performance, pricing, and feature set to compete effectively.
The main concern is related to false positives; Acunetix needs to work on identifying valid and invalid findings.
Lead Cybersecurity at TBO
I could supply it with maybe a Swagger file or a JSON file, and Acunetix would pick it up, scan all the endpoints according to the OWASP Top Ten, and give me remediation and actionable remediation reports.
Team Lead, Application Security at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
Acunetix should have better integration with newer tools such as GitHub and Azure DevOps.
CEO at Xcelliti
Integration into the IDE being used would be beneficial so that code does not need to be uploaded to the website and an IDE-friendly report could be generated.
Senior Software Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
It could suggest how the code base is written and automatically populate the source code with three different solution options to choose from.
Specialist Leader at Deloitte
If you can improve the speed optimization, it takes around 30 to 40 minutes for checking a build. If you can make it within five minutes or 10 minutes, that would be great.
Senior Software Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
With the growing reliance on AI, Qualys Web Application Scanning should be updated to handle AI-based applications and LLM-based attacks.
Associate Principal, Software Engineering at LTI - Larsen & Toubro Infotech
Qualys Web Application Scanning does IP-level testing, requiring direct input of credentials, and can only scan a few pages to provide known generic vulnerabilities.
Security Officer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
I would like it to be cheaper because it is a bit expensive compared to competitors like Tenable Nessus.
Team Lead, Cyber Security at Uridium Technologies
 

Setup Cost

Acunetix pricing is seen as high and complex, impacting renewal decisions due to cost transparency and fluctuation issues.
Checkmarx One is often costly but provides quality and security, with costs varying by team size and selected modules.
Qualys Web Application Scanning offers flexible, negotiable pricing, deemed cost-effective but pricey, with discounts for bulk orders.
The pricing cost is affordable for small and mid-sized organizations, and when compared to Checkmarx, it is significantly affordable, as Checkmarx is quite expensive.
Lead Cybersecurity at TBO
We secured a special licensing model for penetration testing companies, which is cost-effective.
Information Security Engineer at Tübitak Bilgem
The pricing of Acunetix is pretty expensive and could be improved.
Senior Business Development Manager at Intouch World
For a small team under 50 developers, normal expenses come under 30 to 60K.
Senior Solution Architect | L3+ Systems & Cloud Engineer | SRE Specialist at Canada Cloud Solution
Due to the number of years I've implemented Checkmarx One, there are rebates and discounts from the OEM which makes it a lot more profitable.
Chief Technology Officer at 3CS Aquarah Limited
The pricing should be reasonable, matching what we are paying for.
Senior GenAI Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
They offer discounts on bulk licenses, making it cheaper compared to competitors like Veracode DAST.
Associate Principal, Software Engineering at LTI - Larsen & Toubro Infotech
I find it a bit expensive compared to other competitors.
Team Lead, Cyber Security at Uridium Technologies
Regarding pricing, I think for personal use, it is costly, but if organizations are ready to pay, then it is fine as they are using it.
Security Officer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Valuable Features

Acunetix provides efficient, comprehensive vulnerability scanning with user-friendly features, accurate detection, and seamless integration, enhancing security management.
Checkmarx One offers comprehensive vulnerability scanning, seamless CI/CD integration, and enhances productivity with ease of use and automation.
Qualys Web Application Scanning offers efficient vulnerability management with Selenium IDE integration, real-time monitoring, and comprehensive security features.
Its most valuable role is in enhancing security by identifying potential vulnerabilities efficiently.
Senior Business Development Manager at Intouch World
The solution is excellent at detecting SQL injection and cross-site scripting vulnerabilities.
CEO at Xcelliti
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.
Senior Engineer - Penetration Tester at a government with 10,001+ employees
Since replacing the previous tool, SAST and SCA scans are conducted in a couple of minutes instead of hours or days.
Cyber Security Expert at Nestle
The best features Checkmarx One offers, over the past years, include broad language and technical support that Checkmarx provides, covering most languages.
ML Engineer - Specialist at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Checkmarx One has positively impacted our organization as we tend to find vulnerabilities very early in the development cycle.
Product security engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
It effectively detects vulnerabilities like the OWASP Top 10 without any issues in reporting.
Senior Security Engineer at Charter Communications
Credential scanning is very effective because it goes in-depth into the system, crawling the pages, and reporting on vulnerabilities.
Team Lead, Cyber Security at Uridium Technologies
Qualys Web Application Scanning is accurate and provides minimal false positives.
Associate Principal, Software Engineering at LTI - Larsen & Toubro Infotech
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2026, in the Application Security Tools category, the mindshare of Acunetix is 2.1%, down from 2.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Checkmarx One is 9.9%, down from 11.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Qualys Web Application Scanning is 1.8%, down from 1.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Application Security Tools Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Checkmarx One9.9%
Acunetix2.1%
Qualys Web Application Scanning1.8%
Other86.2%
Application Security Tools
 

Featured Reviews

Rahul Kumar - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Shahzad Shahzad - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Solution Architect | L3+ Systems & Cloud Engineer | SRE Specialist at Canada Cloud Solution
Enable secure development workflows while identifying opportunities for faster scans and improved AI guidance
Checkmarx One is a very strong platform, but there are several areas where it can improve to support modern DevSecOps workflows even better. For example, better real-time developer guidance is needed. The IDE plugin should offer richer AI-powered auto-fixes similar to SNYK Code or GitHub Copilot Security, as current guidance is good but not deeply contextual for large-scale enterprise codebases. This matters because it reduces developer friction and accelerates shift-left adoption. More transparency control over the correlation engines is another need. The correlation engine is powerful but not fully transparent. Users want to understand why vulnerabilities were correlated or de-prioritized, which helps AppSec teams trust the prioritization logic. Faster SAST scan and more language coverage is needed since SAST scan can still be slow for very large mono-repos and there is limited deep support for new language frameworks like Rust and Go, along with advanced coverage for serverless-specific frameworks. This matters because large organizations want sub-minute scans in CI/CD as cloud-native ecosystems evolve fast. A strong API security module is another area for enhancement. API security scanning could be improved with active testing, API discovery, full Swagger, OpenAPI, drift detection, and schema-based fuzzing. This is important as API attacks are one of the biggest AppSec risks in 2025. Checkmarx One is strong, but I see a few areas for improvement including faster SAST scanning for large mono-repos, deeper language framework support, more transparent correlation logic, and stronger API security that includes discovery and runtime context. The IDE plugin could offer more AI-assisted fixes, and the SBOM lifecycle tracking can evolve further. Enhancing integration with SIEM and SOAR would also make enterprise adoption smoother, and these improvements would help developers and AppSec teams move faster with more accuracy.
AnkitSharma13 - PeerSpot reviewer
Security Officer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Web scanning needs improvement but offers good vulnerability detection
The downside of Qualys Web Application Scanning is that it cannot crawl automatically. If I provide an IP address and a login form, it does basic testing, but it doesn't go deep as IBM AppScan does. If Qualys Web Application Scanning could improve its crawling capability, it would be more user-friendly. Qualys Web Application Scanning does IP-level testing, requiring direct input of credentials, and can only scan a few pages to provide known generic vulnerabilities, which isn't as beneficial from my point of view. The Vulnerability Management also relies heavily on version numbers and will flag vulnerabilities based on the component version, but it doesn't check if a real fix exists, leading to flags on components that actually have workarounds available.
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Application Security Tools solutions are best for your needs.
885,667 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
12%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
7%
Financial Services Firm
17%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
Government
6%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Computer Software Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business15
Midsize Enterprise7
Large Enterprise18
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business32
Midsize Enterprise9
Large Enterprise46
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise27
 

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 ...
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 ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Acunetix?
I would say the pricing is average, but still, it is higher than low.
What alternatives are there for Fortify WebInspect and Fortify SCA?
I would like to recommend Checkmarx. With Checkmarx, you are able to have an all in one solution for SAST and SCA as ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Checkmarx?
Checkmarx One is a premium solution, so budget accordingly. Make sure you understand how licensing scales with additi...
What needs improvement with Checkmarx?
One way Checkmarx One could be improved is if it could automatically run scans every month after implementation. If i...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Qualys Web Application Scanning?
Regarding pricing, I think for personal use, it is costly, but if organizations are ready to pay, then it is fine as ...
What needs improvement with Qualys Web Application Scanning?
The downside of Qualys Web Application Scanning is that it cannot crawl automatically. If I provide an IP address and...
What is your primary use case for Qualys Web Application Scanning?
I use Qualys Web Application Scanning, and we are using Vulnerability Management. By Vulnerability Management, I mean...
 

Also Known As

AcuSensor
No data available
Qualys WAS
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Joomla!, Digicure, Team Random, Credit Suisse, Samsung, Air New Zealand
YIT, Salesforce, Coca-Cola, SAP, U.S. Army, Liveperson, Playtech Case Study: Liveperson Implements Innovative Secure SDLC
BskyB, Cartagena, ClearPoint Learning Systems, Connect Group, du, Fortrex Technologies, HBOR, HDI, Highlights for Children, The Lithuanian State Enterprise Centre of Registers, City of Miami Beach, Microsoft, MidlandHR, MSCI Inc., Northern Arizona University, Ofgem, Olympus Europa, PhoneFactor, RTL Nederland, ThousandEyes, VGZ Organisatie B.V.
Find out what your peers are saying about SonarSource Sàrl, Checkmarx, Veracode and others in Application Security Tools. Updated: February 2026.
885,667 professionals have used our research since 2012.