Contrast Security Assess vs Tenable.io Web Application Scanning comparison

Contrast Security and Tenable are both solutions in the Application Security Tools category. Contrast Security is ranked #30, while Tenable is ranked #15 with an average rating of 8.5. Contrast Security holds a 1.1% mindshare in AS, compared to Tenable’s 1.4% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Contrast Security users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of Tenable users who would recommend it.

Contrast Security Assess

Read 11 Contrast Security Assess reviews

1,722 Views
1,119 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Tenable.io Web Application ...

Read 18 Tenable.io Web Application Scanning reviews

1,996 Views
1,597 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

Contrast Security Assess

Tenable.io Web Application ...

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 8, 2024

Contrast Security Assess and Tenable.io Web Application Scanning are leading tools in the web application security category. Users find Tenable.io superior due to its comprehensive feature set, justifying its price, while Contrast Security stands out for price satisfaction and support.

Features: Contrast Security Assess offers seamless integration capabilities, real-time vulnerability analysis, and good user experience. Tenable.io Web Application Scanning provides detailed reporting, a wide scope of security threat coverage, and extensive threat intelligence.

Room for Improvement: Contrast Security Assess could improve its automation for reduced manual intervention and usability enhancements. Tenable.io Web Application Scanning can benefit from faster scan results, better integration with other tools, and a more intuitive user interface.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Contrast Security Assess is known for straightforward deployment but may face initial configuration challenges. It offers responsive customer service. Tenable.io Web Application Scanning provides deployment flexibility across various environments but needs more comprehensive support resources.

Pricing and ROI: Contrast Security Assess is perceived to offer good value with satisfactory ROI attributed to its security benefits and ease of use. Tenable.io Web Application Scanning is a bigger investment, yet users see a high ROI due to its thorough features and security reliability.

To learn more, read our detailed Contrast Security Assess vs. Tenable.io Web Application Scanning Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Contrast Security Assess vs. Tenable.io Web Application Scanning

December 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 Application Security Tools

30th

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Static Application Security Testing (SAST) (28th)

Tenable.io Web Application ...

Ranking in Application Security Tools

15th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

5.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Application Security Tools category, the mindshare of Contrast Security Assess is 1.1%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Tenable.io Web Application Scanning is 1.4%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Security Tools Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Tenable.io Web Application Scanning	1.4%
Contrast Security Assess	1.1%
Other	97.5%

Application Security Tools

Featured Reviews

reviewer1605099

Director of Threat and Vulnerability Management at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees

We're gathering vulnerability data from multiple environments in real time, fundamentally changing how we identify issues in applications

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. Assess also provides the option of helping developers incorporate security elements while they're writing code. It depends on whether individual developers decide to utilize the information that's provided to them from the solution, but it definitely gives them visibility into more environments. It gives them an opportunity to remediate vulnerabilities well before production deployments.

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Jonathan-Pereira

Cyber Security Architect at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees

Centralized license management transforms asset manipulation based on functions and improves security posture

Now that the license is centralized, it's a significant feature to manipulate assets based on their functions. It provides a centralized view from end-to-end to its assets' identities and vulnerabilities. One of the greatest features is Kubernetes. The automated scanning capability is pretty standard in the market, and Tenable's prioritization engine helps improve the security posture.

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

"Assess has an excellent API interface to pull APIs."

"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."

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

"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."

"It is a stable solution...Contrast Security Assess is one of the first players in this market, so they have experience and customers, especially abroad. Overall, it's a good product."

"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."

"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."

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

More Contrast Security Assess pros

"It has good unified web application scanning and exposure management."

"The most valuable features of Tenable.io Web Application Scanning are the integration into specific use cases and scanning. All of the features of the solution are useful."

"Our customers adopt this solution because of the replication testing and the vulnerability assessment it can do. It is a multi-faceted product."

"Tenable.io Web Application Scanning provides a detailed report, identifying functions that are complex and need to be more maintainable and readable."

"It is fully automated."

"The solution's instant reports feature is the most effective for detecting threats."

"Now that the license is centralized, it's a significant feature to manipulate assets based on their functions."

"We can get detailed information about vulnerabilities."

More Tenable.io Web Application Scanning 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 out-of-the-box reporting could be improved. We need to write our own APIs to make the reporting more robust."

"I think there was activity underway to support the centralized configuration control. There are ways to do it, but I think they were productizing more of that."

"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 solution should provide more details in the section where it shows that third-party libraries have CVEs or some vulnerabilities."

"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."

"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."

"I would like to see them come up with more scanning rules."

More Contrast Security Assess cons

"The technical support should be improved. Currently, some attacks are detected while others are not."

"I would like for them to add proxy filtering, where you can transfer and alter the package. It is fully automated. Other web application testers programs are actually proxy software, and the proxy software gives you the flexibility of modifying the outgoing package, which will actually help you in exploiting any vulnerability in detail."

"The reporting has a very limited customization capability."

"It isn't easy to manage vulnerabilities in Tenable."

"The market is standard for vulnerability scanning, however, the posture can be improved through Tenable's prioritization engine."

"They have a general dashboard for web application scanning, but the dashboards and reporting can be improved. They probably have some features in their roadmap."

"The technical support needs improvement. Currently, it takes time, which might be due to the free version, but providing some level of support could encourage future purchase decisions."

"The dashboard could be more user-friendly."

More Tenable.io Web Application Scanning cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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 solution is expensive."

"The pricing is okay."

"For Tenable.io Web Application Scanning, it comes to around 6,50,000 Indian rupees, plus taxes."

"Tenable.io Web Application Scanning is expensive for small businesses."

"The price of the solution is reasonable compared to the competitors. The license cost is based on the number of users and the annual usage."

"I rate the product's pricing a four out of ten."

"It follows the same licensing scheme as Tenable.io and Tenable. sc."

"The application is extremely affordable. There are no additional costs involved with licensing. We switched to Tenable.io Web Application Scanning from other solutions due to pricing."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

24%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Computer Software Company

10%

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

12%

Computer Software Company

11%

Government

10%

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	2
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	6

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	7
Midsize Enterprise	5
Large Enterprise	7

Questions from the Community

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What do you like most about Tenable.io Web Application Scanning?

The most effective feature of the product is the ability to scan the entire environment.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Tenable.io Web Application Scanning?

Improvements could include providing coverage reports in the free version and features related to security reports. Also, enhancing technical support would be beneficial as there is room for improv...

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What advice do you have for others considering Tenable.io Web Application Scanning?

I would recommend Tenable.io Web Application Scanning as it provides us with good reports, which help improve our code base, despite the lack of financial benefits. Overall, I would rate it seven o...

See all answers

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Contrast Security Assess

January 2026

Download Contrast Security Assess product report

Buyer's Guide

Application Security Tools

January 2026

Tenable.io Web Application Scanning report

Download Tenable.io Web Application Scanning product report

Also Known As

Contrast Assess

No data available

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

Tenable.io Web Application Scanning safely, accurately and automatically scans your web applications, providing deep visibility into vulnerabilities and valuable context to prioritize remediation.

Tenable

Sample Customers

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

IMDEX

Buyer's Guide

Contrast Security Assess vs. Tenable.io Web Application Scanning

December 2025

Free Report: Contrast Security Assess vs. Tenable.io Web Application Scanning

Find out what your peers are saying about Contrast Security Assess vs. Tenable.io Web Application Scanning and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.

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