OWASP Zap vs PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary
Updated on Mar 20, 2022

We performed a comparison between Owasp Zap and Portswigger Burp Suite Professional based on our users’ reviews in four categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.

  • Ease of Deployment: Most users of both solutions feel that deploying them is relatively easy and straightforward. However, some of the users of both of these solutions feel that they are somewhat difficult to deploy.

  • Features: Reviewers of both solutions find them to be reliable and easy to use. Owasp Zap’s users particularly like its heads up display. One reviewer feels that Owasp Zap should offer a marketplace of additional options. This would enable users to customize it according to their specific needs.

    Portswigger Burp Suite Professional’s users note that it has many valuable features, including its wealth of extensions and its automated scanning feature. However, one feature that it lacks is a heads up display.
  • Pricing: Users of Owasp Zap note that it is an open source solution. Therefore, it is completely free of cost. While some users note that Portswigger Burp Suite Professional has a free version others note that this version is very basic and the paid version is expensive.
  • Service and Support: Most users of Owasp Zap note that the community support makes up for the fact that it lacks traditional technical support. Most users of Portswigger Burp Suite Professional think that the technical support that it offers is good. Reviewers were split as to whether or not the documentation that Portswigger Burp Suite Professional offers is good enough.

Comparison of Results: Based on the parameters we compared, Owasp Zap seems to be a superior solution. All other things being more or less equal, our reviewers found the full version of Portswigger Burp Suite Professional to be rather expensive to purchase. Additionally, some users of Portswigger Burp Suite Professional are not so impressed by the technical support and documentation that it offers. Finally, one user of Portswigger Burp Suite Professional implied that it would be a better product if it had a HUD like Owasp Zap.

To learn more, read our detailed OWASP Zap vs. PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional Report (Updated: March 2024).
763,955 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"It's great that we can use it with Portswigger Burp.""The application scanning feature is the most valuable feature.""We use the solution for security testing.""You can run it against multiple targets.""ZAP is easy to use. The automated scan is a powerful feature. You can simulate attacks with various parameters. ZAP integrates well with SonarQube.""They offer free access to some other tools.""The solution is scalable.""The HUD is a good feature that provides on-site testing and saves a lot of time."

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"The reporting part is the most valuable. It also has very good features. We use almost all of the features for different kinds of customers and needs.""PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional has an intercept tab that helps us to scan our APIs, set the response, and request errors."""The product is very good just the way it is; It has everything already well established and functions great. I can't see any way for this current version to be improved."""PortSwigger Burp Suite does not hamper the node of the server, and it does not shut down the server if it is running.""With the Extender Tab, if you know how to code then you can create a plugin and add it to Burp.""The extension that it provides with the community version for the skills mapping is excellent.""The most valuable feature is the application security. It also has a reasonable price.""The most valuable feature of PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional is the dashboard. It is very informative and you can receive all the information you need in one place. It's clear, well-defined, and organized. Anybody without any cybersecurity can use it."

More PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional Pros →

Cons
"The reporting feature could be more descriptive.""OWASP Zap needs to extend to mobile application testing.""The technical support team must be proactive.""Zap could improve by providing better reports for security and recommendations for the vulnerabilities.""There isn't too much information about it online.""It would be nice to have a solid SQL injection engine built into Zap.""If there was an easier to understand exactly what has been checked and what has not been checked, it would make this solution better. We have to trust that it has checked all known vulnerabilities but it's a bit hard to see after the scanning.""The solution is somewhat unreliable because after we get the finding, we have to manually verify each of its findings to see whether it's a false positive or a true finding, and it takes time."

More OWASP Zap Cons →

"The solution doesn't offer very good scalability.""PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional could improve the static code review.""I would like to see the return of the spider mechanism instead of the crawling feature. Burp Suite's earlier version 1.7 had an excellent spider option, and it would be beneficial if Burp incorporated those features into the current version. The crawling techniques used in the current version are not as efficient as those used in earlier versions.""The biggest drawback is reporting. It's not so good. I can download them, but they're not so informative.""A lot of our interns find it difficult to get used to PortSwigger Burp's environment.""I am from Brazil. The currency exchange rate from a dollar to a Brazilian Real is quite steep. It is almost six to one. It would be good if it can be sold in the local currency, and its price is cheaper for us.""The pricing of the solution is quite high.""The initial setup is a bit complex."

More PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional Cons →

Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "It is highly recommended as it is an open source tool."
  • "It's free and open, currently under the Apache 2 license. If ZAP does what you need it to do, selling a free solution is a very easy."
  • "OWASP ZAP is a free tool provided by OWASP’s engineers and experts. There is an option to donate."
  • "As Zap is free and open-source, with tons of features similar to those of commercial solutions, I would definitely recommend trying it out."
  • "It's free. It's good for us because we don't know what the extent of our use will be yet. It's good to start with something free and easy to use."
  • "OWASP Zap is free to use."
  • "This app is completely free and open source. So there is no question about any pricing."
  • "This is an open-source solution and can be used free of charge."
  • More OWASP Zap Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "This is a value for money product."
  • "The cost is approximately $500 for a single license, and there are no additional costs beyond the standard licensing fees."
  • "Our licensing cost is approximately $400 USD per year."
  • "The yearly cost is about $300."
  • "There is no setup cost and the cost of licensing is affordable."
  • "Licensing costs are about $450/year for one use. For larger organizations, they're able to test against multiple applications while simultaneously others might have multiple versions of applications which needs to be tested which is why we have the enterprise edition."
  • "There are different licenses available that include a free version."
  • "At $400 or $500 per license paid annually, it is a very cheap tool."
  • More PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Answers from the Community
    Anonymous User
    reviewer1526550 - PeerSpot reviewerreviewer1526550 (Lead Security Architect at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees)
    Real User

    Yes OWASP ZAP is a good option as it's an open source so always preferred but Burp Suite Pro  will give you more options, its one of the best tool to have for pentesters so defo worth it.

    Avinash-Kumar - PeerSpot reviewerAvinash-Kumar
    Real User

    First things first both are having their own merits, however in my personal experience ZAP can replace your burpsuite for sure considering the License. Also as the latest ZAP versions are covering more advanced techniques and spidering patterns with lots of options in it, it is worth considering ZAP. However remember that burpsuite from latest versions with inbuilt chromium and it's emerging plugin support (Installable jars) you can use burp to the fullest and you can keep it as a swiss knife for your web and app pentesting. Couple of extensions in burp pro are interesting especially the race condition one. I always prefer using Burp and at instances I go with ZAP.

    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:OWASP Zap and PortSwigger Burp Suite Pro have many similar features. OWASP Zap has web application scanning available with basic security vulnerabilities while Burp Suite Pro has it available with… more »
    Top Answer:The application scanning feature is the most valuable feature.
    Top Answer:You can download different plugins if you don't have them in the standard edition.
    Top Answer:We pay a yearly licensing fee for the solution, which is neither cheap nor expensive.
    Ranking
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    22,442
    Comparisons
    10,766
    Reviews
    12
    Average Words per Review
    360
    Rating
    7.3
    Views
    10,093
    Comparisons
    6,737
    Reviews
    18
    Average Words per Review
    490
    Rating
    8.6
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    Burp
    Learn More
    Overview

    OWASP Zap is a free and open-source web application security scanner. 

    The solution helps developers identify vulnerabilities in their web applications by actively scanning for common security issues. 

    With its user-friendly interface and powerful features, Zap is a popular choice among developers for ensuring the security of their web applications.

    Burp Suite Professional, by PortSwigger, is the world’s leading toolkit for web security testing. Over 52,000 users worldwide, across all industries and organization sizes, trust Burp Suite Professional to find more vulnerabilities, faster. With expertly-engineered manual and automated tooling, you're able to test smarter - not harder.

    PortSwigger is the web security company that is enabling the world to secure the web. Over 50,000 security engineers rely on our software and expertise to secure their world.

    Sample Customers
    1. Google 2. Microsoft 3. IBM 4. Amazon 5. Facebook 6. Twitter 7. LinkedIn 8. Netflix 9. Adobe 10. PayPal 11. Salesforce 12. Cisco 13. Oracle 14. Intel 15. HP 16. Dell 17. VMware 18. Symantec 19. McAfee 20. Citrix 21. Red Hat 22. Juniper Networks 23. SAP 24. Accenture 25. Deloitte 26. Ernst & Young 27. PwC 28. KPMG 29. Capgemini 30. Infosys 31. Wipro 32. TCS
    Google, Amazon, NASA, FedEx, P&G, Salesforce
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company26%
    Financial Services Firm16%
    Retailer11%
    Energy/Utilities Company11%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company18%
    Financial Services Firm10%
    Comms Service Provider7%
    Government7%
    REVIEWERS
    Manufacturing Company22%
    Financial Services Firm22%
    Computer Software Company19%
    Comms Service Provider13%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company17%
    Financial Services Firm11%
    Comms Service Provider10%
    Government9%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business22%
    Midsize Enterprise28%
    Large Enterprise50%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business21%
    Midsize Enterprise15%
    Large Enterprise63%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business21%
    Midsize Enterprise21%
    Large Enterprise57%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business21%
    Midsize Enterprise15%
    Large Enterprise64%
    Buyer's Guide
    OWASP Zap vs. PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about OWASP Zap vs. PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
    763,955 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    OWASP Zap is ranked 8th in Application Security Testing (AST) with 13 reviews while PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional is ranked 5th in Application Security Testing (AST) with 21 reviews. OWASP Zap is rated 7.6, while PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional is rated 8.6. The top reviewer of OWASP Zap writes "Stable dynamic testing solution with unreliable manual processes". On the other hand, the top reviewer of PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional writes "Offers efficient scanning of entire websites but presence of false positive bugs, leading to time-consuming efforts in distinguishing real bugs from false alarms". OWASP Zap is most compared with SonarQube, Acunetix, Qualys Web Application Scanning, Veracode and Checkmarx, whereas PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional is most compared with Fortify WebInspect, Acunetix, HCL AppScan, Qualys Web Application Scanning and SonarQube. See our OWASP Zap vs. PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional report.

    See our list of best Application Security Testing (AST) vendors.

    We monitor all Application Security Testing (AST) reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.