Contrast Security Assess vs Parasoft SOAtest comparison

Contrast Security and Parasoft are both solutions in the Static Application Security Testing (SAST) category. Contrast Security is ranked #26 with an average rating of 8.0, while Parasoft is ranked #19 with an average rating of 9.0. Contrast Security holds a 0.5% mindshare in SAST, compared to Parasoft’s 0.5% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Contrast Security users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 92% of Parasoft users who would recommend it.

Contrast Security Assess

Read 11 Contrast Security Assess reviews

1,243 Views
709 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Parasoft SOAtest

Read 32 Parasoft SOAtest reviews

1,955 Views
841 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

Contrast Security Assess

Parasoft SOAtest

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 8, 2024

Parasoft SOAtest and Contrast Security Assess are tools aimed at enhancing software security and testing efficiency. While Parasoft SOAtest is known for its competitive pricing and comprehensive support, Contrast Security Assess has the edge with its advanced features that justify its cost.

Features: Parasoft SOAtest offers automation capabilities, integration with CI/CD pipelines, and testing efficiency enhancements. Contrast Security Assess provides real-time vulnerability assessment, scalability, and dynamic analysis, which users find superior to SOAtest.

Room for Improvement: Parasoft SOAtest could benefit from improved documentation, more intuitive configuration options, and enhanced user interface design. Contrast Security Assess needs better integration with certain development frameworks, improved initial setup process, and more comprehensive training materials.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Parasoft SOAtest is praised for its straightforward deployment process and responsive customer service, ensuring a smoother user experience. Contrast Security Assess, while slightly more complex to deploy, is commended for its knowledgeable customer support team that aids in problem-solving.

Pricing and ROI: Parasoft SOAtest's pricing structure is viewed as reasonable, providing strong ROI through effective test automation. Contrast Security Assess, although more expensive, offers a compelling ROI by facilitating continuous vulnerability assessments, enhancing long-term value.

To learn more, read our detailed Contrast Security Assess vs. Parasoft SOAtest Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Contrast Security Assess vs. Parasoft SOAtest

July 2025

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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

Contrast Security Assess

Ranking in Static Application Security Testing (SAST)

26th

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Security Tools (27th)

Parasoft SOAtest

Ranking in Static Application Security Testing (SAST)

19th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Functional Testing Tools (19th), API Testing Tools (10th), Test Automation Tools (16th)

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Static Application Security Testing (SAST) category, the mindshare of Contrast Security Assess is 0.5%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Parasoft SOAtest is 0.5%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Static Application Security Testing (SAST)

Featured Reviews

ToddMcAlister

Lead Application and Data Security Engineer at a insurance company with 5,001-10,000 employees

It has an excellent API interface to pull APIs.

Assess has brought our development time down because it helps create code the first time. Instead of going through the Jenkins process to build an application, they can see right off the bat that if there are errors in the code and fix them before it even goes to build.

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Nghiêm Phương

CEO at SMOne

Quality and security improvements drive user satisfaction

We have many customers, but with Parasoft SOAtest, we just focus on .NET, Java, and PHP protocols and message formats. For deployment, it runs on-premise with Parasoft SOAtest. The transition from manual testing can be challenging, and it's the first time they're using automation testing with Parasoft SOAtest. For the tool itself, Parasoft SOAtest, I would rate it as great with an overall rating of 10 out of 10.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I am impressed with the product's identification of alerts and vulnerabilities."

"The accuracy of the solution in identifying vulnerabilities is better than any other product we've used, far and away. In our internal comparisons among different tools, Contrast consistently finds more impactful vulnerabilities, and also identifies vulnerabilities that are nearly guaranteed to be there, meaning that the chance of false positives is very low."

"The solution is very accurate in identifying vulnerabilities. In cases where we are performing application assessment using Contrast Assess, and also using legacy application security testing tools, Contrast successfully identifies the same vulnerabilities that the other tools have identified but it also identifies significantly more. In addition, it has visibility into application components that other testing methodologies are unaware of."

"We use the Contrast OSS feature that allows us to look at third-party, open-source software libraries, because it has a cool interface where you can look at all the different libraries. It has some really cool additional features where it gives us how many instances in which something has been used... It tells us it has been used 10 times out of 20 workloads, for example. Then we know for sure that OSS is being used."

"By far, the thing that was able to provide value was the immediate response while testing ahead of release, in real-time."

"No other tool does the runtime scanning like Contrast does. Other static analysis tools do static scanning, but Contrast is runtime analysis, when the routes are exercised. That's when the scan happens. This is a tool that has a very unique capability compared to other tools. That's what I like most about Contrast, that it's runtime."

"This has changed the way that developers are looking at usage of third-party libraries, upfront. It's changing our model of development and our culture of development to ensure that there is more thought being put into the usage of third-party libraries."

"In our most critical applications, we have a deep dive in the code evaluation, which was something we usually did with periodic vulnerability assessments, code reviews, etc. Now, we have real time access to it. It's something that has greatly enhanced our code's quality. We have actually embedded a KPI in regards to the improvement of our code shell. For example, Contrast provides a baseline where libraries and the usability of the code are evaluated, and they produce a score. We always aim to improve that score. On a quarterly basis, we have added this to our KPIs."

More Contrast Security Assess pros

"If you want something that’s not provided out of the box, then you can write it yourself and integrate it with SOAtest."

"Generating new messages, based on the existing .EDN and .XML messages, is a crucial part or the testing project that I’m currently in."

"We have seen a return on investment."

"They have a feature where they can record traffic and create tests on the report traffic."

"Since the solution has both command line and automation options, it generates good reports."

"Parasoft SOAtest has improved the quality of our automated web services, which can be easily implemented through service chaining and service virtualization."

"The solution is scalable."

"Technical support is helpful."

More Parasoft SOAtest pros

Cons

"The solution needs to improve flexibility...The scalability of the product is a problem in the solution, especially from a commercial perspective."

"The product's retesting part needs improvement. The tool also needs improvement in the suggestions provided for fixing vulnerabilities. It relies more on documentation rather than on quick fixes."

"The setup of the solution is different for each application. That's the one thing that has been a challenge for us. The deployment itself is simple, but it's tough to automate because each application is different, so each installation process for Contrast is different."

"Personalization of the board and how to make it appealing to an organization is something that could be done on their end. The reports could be adaptable to the customer's preferences."

"To instrument an agent, it has to be running on a type of application technology that the agent recognizes and understands. It's excellent when it works. If we're using an application that is using an unsupported technology, then we can't instrument it at all. We do use PHP and Contrast presently doesn't support that, although it's on their roadmap. My primary hurdle is that it doesn't support all of the technologies that we use."

"Regarding the solution's OSS feature, the one drawback that we do have is that it does not have client-side support. We'll be missing identification of libraries like jQuery or JavaScript, and such, that are client-side."

"The out-of-the-box reporting could be improved. We need to write our own APIs to make the reporting more robust."

"Contrast Security Assess covers a wide range of applications like .NET Framework, Java, PSP, Node.js, etc. But there are some like Ubuntu and the .NET Core which are not covered. They have it in their roadmap to have these agents. If they have that, we will have complete coverage."

More Contrast Security Assess cons

"During the process of working with SOAtest and building test cases, the .TST files will grow. A negative side effect is that saving your changes takes more time."

"Parasoft SOAtest has an internal refresh function where you can refresh the software to show the changes you’ve made in your projects. Unfortunately this function does not work properly, because it often does not show the changes after you’ve hit te refresh button a few times."

"From an automation point of view, it should have better clarity and be more user friendly."

"UI testing should be more in-depth."

"Enabling/disabling an optional element of an XML request is only possible if a data source (e.g., Excel sheet) is connected to the test. Otherwise, the option is not available at all in the drop-down menu."

"Compatibility with HTTP 1.1 and TLS 1.2 needs to be improved."

"Reporting facilities can be better."

"Reports could be customized and more descriptive according to the user's or company's requirements."

More Parasoft SOAtest cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is expensive."

"The product's pricing is low. I would rate it a two out of ten."

"I like the per-application licensing model... We just license the app and we look at different vulnerabilities on that app and we remediate within the app. It's simpler."

"It's a tiered licensing model. The more you buy, as you cross certain quantity thresholds, the pricing changes. If you have a smaller environment, your licensing costs are going to be different than a larger environment... The licensing is primarily per application. An application can be as many agents as you need. If you've got 10 development servers and 20 production servers and 50 QA servers, all of those agents can be reporting as a single application that utilizes one license."

"You only get one license for an application. Ours are very big, monolithic applications with millions of lines of code. We were able to apply one license to one monolithic application, which is great. We are happy with the licensing. Pricing-wise, they are industry-standard, which is fine."

"For what it offers, it's a very reasonable cost. The way that it is priced is extremely straightforward. It works on the number of applications that you use, and you license a server. It is something that is extremely fair, because it doesn't take into consideration the number of requests, etc. It is only priced based on the number of onboarded applications. It suits our model as well, because we have huge traffic. Our number of applications is not that large, so the pricing works great for us."

"The good news is that the agent itself comes in two different forms: the unlicensed form and the licensed form. Unlicensed gives use of that software composition analysis for free. Thereafter, if you apply a license to that same agent, that's when the instrumentation takes hold. So one of my suggestions is to do what we're doing: Deploy the agent to as many applications as possible, with just the SCA feature turned on with no license applied, and then you can be more choosy and pick which teams will get the license applied."

"The license price is a little expensive, but it provides a better outcome in terms of the end-to-end automation process."

"They do have a confusing licensing structure."

"From what I understand, Parasoft SOAtest isn't the cheapest option. But it has a lot to offer."

"The cost of Parasoft seems to have gotten higher with a projection that wasn't really stipulated for our company. They've done a tremendous job at negotiating those deals."

"It is an expensive product, so think carefully about whether it fits your purposes and is the right tool for you."

"We are completed satisfied with Parasoft SOAtest. The ROI is more than 95%."

"I think it would be a great step to decrease the price of the licenses."

"The price is around $5,000 USD."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

22%

Manufacturing Company

12%

Computer Software Company

Insurance Company

Financial Services Firm

21%

Manufacturing Company

17%

Computer Software Company

10%

University

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Contrast Security Assess?

When we access the application, it continuously monitors and detects vulnerabilities.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Contrast Security Assess?

Technical support for the solution should be faster. We have to further analyze what kind of CVEs are in the reported libraries and what part of the code is affected. That analysis can be added to ...

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What advice do you have for others considering Contrast Security Assess?

Contrast Security Assess is deployed on-cloud in our organization. I would recommend Contrast Security Assess to other users. It's a really good tool. It provides lots of details on web-based vulne...

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What do you like most about Parasoft SOAtest?

Since the solution has both command line and automation options, it generates good reports.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Parasoft SOAtest?

Parasoft SOAtest is expensive, but it was acquired because the company was dissatisfied with Quick Test Pro. The new management does not want subscription tools around, aiming for scripted tests us...

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What needs improvement with Parasoft SOAtest?

In terms of improvements for Parasoft SOAtest, some features could be added or perhaps existing areas could be improved, such as lowering prices.

See all answers

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SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) vs Contrast Security Assess

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Compared 21% of the time

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Compared 20% of the time

Coverity vs Parasoft SOAtest

Compared 12% of the time

Tricentis Tosca vs Parasoft SOAtest

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Polyspace Code Prover vs Parasoft SOAtest

Compared 8% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Contrast Security Assess

August 2025

Download Contrast Security Assess product report

Buyer's Guide

Parasoft SOAtest

August 2025

Download Parasoft SOAtest product report

Also Known As

Contrast Assess

SOAtest

Overview

Contrast Security is the world’s leading provider of security technology that enables software applications to protect themselves against cyberattacks, heralding the new era of self-protecting software. Contrast's patented deep security instrumentation is the breakthrough technology that enables highly accurate assessment and always-on protection of an entire application portfolio, without disruptive scanning or expensive security experts. Only Contrast has sensors that work actively inside applications to uncover vulnerabilities, prevent data breaches, and secure the entire enterprise from development, to operations, to production.

Contrast Security

Parasoft SOAtest delivers fully integrated API and web service testing capabilities that automate end-to-end functional API testing. Streamline automated testing with advanced codeless test creation for applications with multiple interfaces (REST & SOAP APIs, microservices, databases, and more).

SOAtest reduces the risk of security breaches and performance outages by transforming functional testing artifacts into security and load equivalents. Such reuse, along with continuous monitoring of APIs for change, allows faster and more efficient testing.

Parasoft

Sample Customers

Williams-Sonoma, Autodesk, HUAWEI, Chromeriver, RingCentral, Demandware.

Charter Communications, Sabre, Caesars Entertainment, Charles Schwab, ING, Intel, Northbridge Financial, Capital Services, WoodmenLife

Buyer's Guide

Contrast Security Assess vs. Parasoft SOAtest

July 2025

Free Report: Contrast Security Assess vs. Parasoft SOAtest

Find out what your peers are saying about Contrast Security Assess vs. Parasoft SOAtest and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.

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