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HCL AppScan vs StackHawk 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:
 

Categories and Ranking

HCL AppScan
Ranking in Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST)
7th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
5.9
Number of Reviews
44
Ranking in other categories
Application Security Tools (23rd), Static Application Security Testing (SAST) (18th)
StackHawk
Ranking in Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST)
10th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
4.6
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST) category, the mindshare of HCL AppScan is 8.7%, down from 11.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of StackHawk is 1.8%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
HCL AppScan8.7%
StackHawk1.8%
Other89.5%
Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST)
 

Featured Reviews

Ravi Khanchandani - PeerSpot reviewer
Founder Director at Techsa Services
Has improved identification of encryption and authentication issues across cloud and on-prem applications
During the learning curve of onboarding HCL AppScan, we learned that HCL has altered the portfolio and now offers HCL AppScan 360, which has a much better look and feel with an improved user interface. However, there is one feature called SCA, which stands for Software Composition Analysis, that could be improved. When I'm doing an application scan, HCL AppScan has the ability to generate information about what components are in use. For example, if I'm scanning a web application, it shows me the various components being used. It tells me whether I have Java libraries, .NET frameworks, or other log management libraries such as Log4j, and what versions of those specific components are present. I would like to see more detailed reports from the tool. Currently, you can find out the components belonging to a specific software, but if detailed reporting became available, you would be in a better position to identify vulnerabilities. For instance, I could identify that I had the Log4j vulnerability and know that I need to fix my application accordingly. If they add the features I'm describing, I would consider giving them a higher rating. However, I've only been experienced with the product for three months.
Ney Roman - PeerSpot reviewer
DevOps Engineer at Deuna
Vulnerability visibility has improved across microservices but integration still needs refinement
StackHawk can be improved in the way that it is integrated, as at the very beginning, the idea was to, within the pipeline, mount the different resources that our microservices needed to start to run. For example, if we have a service that needed Redis, maybe Kafka, or a database to initialize, we did need to have a Docker Compose file, get up those services, and after that, do the analysis. It didn't have that; it wasn't reachable at the very beginning and it wasn't that good as we expected. But at some point, we decided to mount it as an agent in the Docker file, and it was waiting for new jobs. It was even better, and when we figured out how to integrate it within our EKS cluster, suddenly we started reaching to the services, knowing what was going on, and everything related to security. As long as we have a P2T to our QA site or cluster, we do not have garbage in our databases, but StackHawk does put a little information, a garbage information, doing their job. That's the main area I'm focusing on right now regarding needed improvements.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable feature of the solution is Postman."
"I prefer Appscan, as it much more user friendly, and it detects cross-site scripting and SQL injection issues much better than other tools in the market."
"Now we just send it to AppScan and we can do other stuff like defining processes or dealing with management issues."
"The most valuable feature of HCL AppScan is scanning QR codes."
"AppScan is within the top three or four static analyzers."
"There's extensive functionality with custom rules and a custom knowledge base."
"Compared to other tools only AppScan supports special language."
"The UI was very intuitive."
"StackHawk has positively impacted my organization by giving us a new vision of how vulnerabilities were seen, as we now have more visibility in that matter."
"StackHawk has positively impacted my organization by introducing an automated process that did not exist previously, and it helped the company achieve PCI certification."
 

Cons

"The solution could improve by having a mobile version."
"The pricing has room for improvement."
"If HCL AppScan is able to alert the clients over email once the scan is complete, it would be great. Right now, HCL AppScan doesn't let me know if the scanning part is finished or not, because of which I have to come back and check mostly."
"I would like to see the roadmap for this product. We are still waiting to see it as we have only so many resources."
"Unfortunately, there is a big discussion if it is very expensive to use it or not, and there are competitors."
"IBM Security AppScan needs to add performance optimization for quickly scanning the target web applications."
"I would love to see more containers. Many of the tools are great, they require an amount of configuration, setup and infrastructure. If most the applications were in a container, I think everything would be a little bit faster, because all our clients are now using containers."
"We have experienced challenges when trying to integrate this solution with other products. When you compare it with the other SecOps products, the quality of the output is too low. It is not a new-age product. It is very outdated."
"StackHawk can be improved in the way that it is integrated, as at the very beginning, the idea was to, within the pipeline, mount the different resources that our microservices needed to start to run."
"On a scale of one to ten, I would rate StackHawk an eight, only because I wish the product was a little less expensive."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Our clients are willing to pay the extra money. It is expensive."
"The tool was expensive."
"The solution is cheap."
"HCL AppScan is expensive."
"With the features, that they offer, and the support, they offer, AppScan pricing is on a higher level."
"The solution is moderately priced."
"I rate the product's price a seven on a scale of one to ten, where one is low, and ten is high. HCL AppScan is an expensive tool."
"AppScan is a little bit expensive. IBM needs to work a little bit on the pricing model, decreasing the license cost."
Information not available
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909,725 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
8%
Construction Company
8%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business14
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise31
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with HCL AppScan?
During the learning curve of onboarding HCL AppScan, we learned that HCL has altered the portfolio and now offers HCL AppScan 360, which has a much better look and feel with an improved user interf...
What is your primary use case for HCL AppScan?
I'm currently working with BigFix and HCL AppScan. At least three people in my company are using HCL AppScan. Since we are a reseller, we run it in both lab environments and live production applica...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for HCL AppScan?
AppScan is considered more cost-effective than Veracode, although I have not updated the exact pricing details. Companies often choose based on budget constraints, with Veracode being on the higher...
What needs improvement with StackHawk?
StackHawk can be improved in the way that it is integrated, as at the very beginning, the idea was to, within the pipeline, mount the different resources that our microservices needed to start to r...
What is your primary use case for StackHawk?
My main use case for StackHawk is to analyze our application live in our EKS cluster. A specific example of how we use StackHawk in our EKS cluster is that we deployed an agent authenticated to the...
What advice do you have for others considering StackHawk?
I don't actually have a clear perspective on StackHawk's AI capabilities regarding its governance and security. My advice to others looking into using StackHawk is to stay prepared. Document how yo...
 

Also Known As

IBM Security AppScan, Rational AppScan, AppScan
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Essex Technology Group Inc., Cisco, West Virginia University, APIS IT
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about HCL AppScan vs. StackHawk and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
909,725 professionals have used our research since 2012.