

HCL AppScan and Qualys Web Application Scanning are prominent competitors in web application security. Qualys has the advantage due to its features, including comprehensive reporting and integration.
Features: HCL AppScan is notable for identifying vulnerabilities such as XSS and SQL injection and integrates well into agile processes. It provides templates for compliance like PCI and supports multiple languages with a low false-positive rate. Qualys offers effective scanning, comprehensive reporting, and patch management. It supports extensive integrations and threat reporting, making it beneficial for enterprises.
Room for Improvement: HCL AppScan could enhance DOM-based XSS detection and provide better remediation guidelines. It experiences occasional crashes during extensive scans and could improve its web service testing. Qualys requires improved crawling capabilities and better integration beyond OWASP. Users also seek fewer false positives and a more intuitive interface.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: HCL AppScan offers on-premises deployment, suitable for local control, but needs improved technical support responsiveness. Qualys Web Application Scanning excels in cloud and hybrid deployments, with high marks for responsive customer service and efficient deployment.
Pricing and ROI: HCL AppScan is seen as expensive, but its features and support justify the cost with a substantial ROI from reduced vulnerabilities. Qualys Web Application Scanning is cost-effective, with competitive pricing and flexible offers for institutional buyers.
Veracode provides excellent assistance and regularly scheduled calls to address customer concerns and updates.
There is still room for improvement when it comes to the speed of response.
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.
I have dealt with Qualys's technical support, and any enhancements are challenging.
Once we purchase the license, we have access to top-notch support.
It produces similar vulnerability results as other tools such as Nessus based on version checks instead of real impact checks.
It is licensed for assets, so we just contact the team for additional licenses if needed.
At one point, there was a limitation on reporting for 100,000 assets at a time.
Since we've been using HCL AppScan for about three months, we really have not encountered a false positive.
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.
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.
With the growing reliance on AI, Qualys Web Application Scanning should be updated to handle AI-based applications and LLM-based attacks.
I would like it to be cheaper because it is a bit expensive compared to competitors like Tenable Nessus.
Companies often choose based on budget constraints, with Veracode being on the higher end cost-wise.
They offer discounts on bulk licenses, making it cheaper compared to competitors like Veracode DAST.
I find it a bit expensive compared to other competitors.
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.
We were able to identify security issues such as certificate-related issues, authentication-related issues, and weak encryption-related issues.
AppScan's most valuable features include its ability to identify vulnerabilities accurately, provide detailed remediation steps, and the newly introduced AI-powered features that enhance its functionality further.
It effectively detects vulnerabilities like the OWASP Top 10 without any issues in reporting.
The product helps by providing options for remediating vulnerabilities it finds, making it really useful.
The advantage of Qualys Web Application Scanning lies in its user-friendly dashboard and appealing reports, which are useful for presentation to leadership.
| Product | Market Share (%) |
|---|---|
| HCL AppScan | 2.4% |
| Qualys Web Application Scanning | 1.9% |
| Other | 95.7% |


| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 14 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 6 |
| Large Enterprise | 31 |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 8 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 6 |
| Large Enterprise | 27 |
IBM Security AppScan enhances web application security and mobile application security, improves application security program management and strengthens regulatory compliance. By scanning your web and mobile applications prior to deployment, AppScan enables you to identify security vulnerabilities and generate reports and fix recommendations.
Qualys Web Application Scanning (WAS) is a fully cloud-based web application security scanner. The scanner will automatically crawl periodically and test web applications to discover potential vulnerabilities, including cross-site scripting (XSS) and SQL injection. The consistent testing equips the automated service to generate consistent results, lessen false positives, and offer the ability to scale to protect thousands of websites effortlessly.
Qualys Web Application Scanning is bundled with different scanning technology to carefully scan websites for malware infections and will send notifications to website owners to assist in preventing blacklisting and brand reputation damage. As digital transformation takes place in various organizations, Qualys WAS gives organizations the ability to track and document their web app security status through its interactive reporting capabilities.
Qualys WAS empowers organizations to remediate any web application vulnerabilities quickly. Some of the key tools offered are:
Benefits of Qualys Web Application Scanning
Qualys Web Application Scanning offers many benefits, including:
Reviews from Real Users
Qualys Web Application Scanning stands out among its competitors for a variety of reasons. Two of those reasons are its progressive scan and quick detection of vulnerabilities.
P.K., a senior software developer at a tech vendor, writes, "The feature that I have found most valuable is the progressive scan. It is good. It's done in 24 hours."
Nagaraj S., lead cybersecurity engineer at a tech service company, notes, "I have found the detection of vulnerabilities tool thorough with good results and the graphical display output to be wonderful and full of colors. It allows many types of outputs, such as bar and chart previews."
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