

Acunetix and Semgrep compete in the field of vulnerability scanning. While Acunetix leads in pricing and support satisfaction, Semgrep is often seen as superior due to its broader capabilities.
Features: Acunetix offers robust vulnerability scanning for web applications with comprehensive reporting tools and excellent integration with CI/CD pipelines. It supports automated scanning schedules and provides detailed report generation, significantly reducing false positives. Semgrep, on the other hand, provides flexible code analysis with customizable rules, allowing for specific code review needs. It integrates seamlessly with IDEs and is particularly effective in SAST, SCA, and secret scanning, making it highly adaptable for varied coding environments.
Room for Improvement: Acunetix could enhance its user interface to make it more intuitive and improve integration with additional third-party tools. A reduction in initial setup complexity could also make it more appealing to non-technical users. Semgrep could improve its support channels and documentation to provide more comprehensive technical guidance. Further refinement in noise reduction during scans might make its results even more precise.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Acunetix supports a straightforward deployment with automated processes and has responsive, helpful customer support available 24/7. In contrast, Semgrep involves a more manual deployment process tailored to customization, with support designed for technically adept users who require hands-on assistance.
Pricing and ROI: Acunetix generally has higher upfront costs but offers significant ROI through vast vulnerability coverage and effective reporting, which streamline security protocols. Semgrep, although more cost-effective initially, provides high ROI through efficient, customizable scans that deliver specific insights, particularly in environments necessitating detailed code analysis.
It saves a significant amount of time by covering attack surfaces.
I have seen a return on investment, as Acunetix helps reduce the man-days and effort needed for scanning bulk applications through automated assessments.
This can be translated to being able to do the same amount of work with less technicians.
Tasks that previously took days are completed in significantly less time.
I can say it saves us time related to coding and also saves money, making it a very reliable tool for our organization with great features.
For high-severity issues, they reach out within two to three hours, and for critical issues, a response is received within 15 minutes.
The technical support from Invicti is very good and fast.
Support staff not being familiar with the problem.
When I created custom rules, I had some doubts, and the documentation was very helpful, simple, and easy to understand.
Their documentation and community are very active, so most of the time when problems occur, I get a solution.
Customer support and services for Semgrep are very reliable and good.
Acunetix can handle increasing workloads and more applications easily.
I was able to control it from 10 repositories or 10 services to thousands of repositories in a couple of minutes very simply.
This is an open-source tool, so it absolutely does the job, but if you were to implement a tool such as this in an enterprise, this would probably not be scalable.
Semgrep makes it easy to integrate and grow within any environment without concern for crashes.
If there is no master branch or default branch, the tool fails to identify it and will never scan it unless manually somebody looks into it and fixes the issue.
Since I have been using it, I have not experienced any downtime.
Semgrep is stable, as far as my experience indicates.
The main concern is related to false positives; Acunetix needs to work on identifying valid and invalid findings.
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.
Acunetix should have better integration with newer tools such as GitHub and Azure DevOps.
The UI and additional dashboarding and other details would definitely make the tool more user-friendly and more of a candidate to be implemented in an enterprise.
Currently, they are working on identifying business logic vulnerabilities or privilege escalation vulnerabilities by looking at the code, and they should continue to focus on and improve this effort.
More advanced dependency analysis features in the SCA part and deeper vulnerability databases would be beneficial.
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.
We secured a special licensing model for penetration testing companies, which is cost-effective.
The pricing of Acunetix is pretty expensive and could be improved.
Once we fully integrated it into our company, it has proven to be price-efficient at around $30 a month.
It is basically open-source, so the cost to set up is no cost.
It offers very reasonable pricing and costs.
Its most valuable role is in enhancing security by identifying potential vulnerabilities efficiently.
The solution is excellent at detecting SQL injection and cross-site scripting vulnerabilities.
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.
When you triage with AI, it gathers context around the finding and reduces the noise about 80 to 90 percent of the time, asking you to focus only on findings that really matter.
The Software Composition Analysis is the most valuable feature in Semgrep.
The best feature of Semgrep is its ability to highlight high priority issues during scanning, making it critical for developers to address these vulnerabilities promptly.
| Product | Mindshare (%) |
|---|---|
| Semgrep | 2.3% |
| Acunetix | 2.6% |
| Other | 95.1% |


| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 18 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 7 |
| Large Enterprise | 19 |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 3 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 2 |
| Large Enterprise | 5 |
Acunetix is a robust web application security testing tool offering rapid scanning, user-friendly interfaces, and accurate vulnerability detection with minimal false positives. It supports both cloud and on-premises deployment, making it versatile for various security needs.
Acunetix is distinguished by its capability to identify critical vulnerabilities such as cross-site scripting and SQL injection with high precision. It integrates seamlessly with CI/CD tools, supporting continuous scanning and large-scale application management. The centralized dashboard and detailed automated reporting streamline operations. Despite its benefits, users suggest improvements like reducing false positives, flexible pricing, and enhanced API scanning. Better integration with platforms like GitHub and Azure DevOps is sought, alongside more comprehensive customization and faster scanning. Mobile application scanning and improved team collaboration tools are also desired.
What features make Acunetix stand out?Acunetix is widely implemented across industries undertaking web application security assessments, including those requiring penetration testing and vulnerability assessment. It ensures applications meet security protocols and complies with standards while fitting into CI/CD workflows for secure pre-release checks.
Semgrep is an advanced static analysis tool designed to identify vulnerabilities and enforce coding standards, catering primarily to professionals with a focus on enhancing code security and quality.
Engineered for software development environments, Semgrep delivers efficient security feedback with minimal setup. By offering a rich collection of rule sets, it allows customization and integration into CI/CD pipelines, supporting continuous code examination. Semgrep not only uncovers hidden flaws but also enforces best practices, making it a valuable asset for development teams seeking to build secure and reliable software.
What are the most important features of Semgrep?In industry applications, Semgrep is a popular choice for sectors such as finance and healthcare, where code integrity and security are paramount. Its integration capabilities allow for effective oversight of compliance and secure coding standards without disrupting existing workflows. This adaptability ensures it meets sector-specific requirements, making it a trusted tool in fields where data privacy and protection are critical.
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