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.
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.
"The solution has tightened our security."
"You can run it against multiple targets."
"It has evolved over the years and recently in the last year they have added, HUD (Heads Up Display)."
"It updates repositories and libraries quickly."
"They offer free access to some other tools."
"Two features are valuable. The first one is that the scan gets completed really quickly, and the second one is that even though it searches in a limited scope, what it does in that limited scope is very good. When you use Zap for testing, you're only using it for specific aspects or you're only looking for certain things. It works very well in that limited scope."
"It's great that we can use it with Portswigger Burp."
"The most valuable feature is scanning the URL to drill down all the different sites."
"The automated scan is what I find most useful because a lot of customers will need it. Not every domain will be looking for complete security, they just need a stamp on the security key. For these kinds of customers, the scan works really well."
"It offers very good accuracy. You can trust the results."
"We use the solution for vulnerability assessment in respect of the application and the sites."
"The most valuable feature of PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional is the advanced features, user-friendly interface, and integration with other tools."
"It's good testing software."
"Enables automation of different tasks such as authorization testing."
"I am impressed with the tool's detailed analysis for penetration testing. AppScan can give only visibility, but it can't do the PT part. But the PortSwigger Burp Application can do both, and it gives much more visibility on the PT rating."
"I have found this solution has more plugins than other competitors which is a benefit. You are able to attach different plugins to the security scan to add features. For example, you can check to see if there are any payment systems that exist on a server, or username and password brute force analysis."
"The forced browse has been incorporated into the program and it is resource-intensive."
"The solution is unable to customize reports."
"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."
"Lacks resources where users can internally access a learning module from the tool."
"There isn't too much information about it online."
"There are too many false positives."
"ZAP's integration with cloud-based CICD pipelines could be better. The scan should run through the entire pipeline."
"The work that it does in the limited scope is good, but the scope is very limited in terms of the scanning features. The number of things it tests or finds is limited. They need to make it a more of a mainstream tool that people can use, and they can even think about having it on a proprietary basis. They need to increase the coverage of the scan and the results that it finds. That has always been Zap's limitation. Zap is a very good tool for a beginner, but once you start moving up the ladder where you want further details and you want your scan to show more in-depth results, Zap falls short because its coverage falls short. It does not have the capacity to do more."
"The solution lacks sufficient stability."
"PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional can improve by having more features in the free version for beginners to try."
"Sometimes the solution can run a little slow."
"The initial setup is a bit complex."
"The reporting needs to be improved; it is very bad."
"There needs to be better documentation provided. Currently, we need to buy books, or we need to review online some use cases from other professionals who have been using the solution to find out their experience. It is not easy to find out how to properly do a security assessment."
"The solution is not easy to set it up. You need a lot of knowledge."
"PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional could improve the static code review."
More PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional Pricing and Cost Advice →
OWASP Zap is ranked 9th in Application Security Testing (AST) with 12 reviews while PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional is ranked 6th in Application Security Testing (AST) with 14 reviews. OWASP Zap is rated 7.0, while PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional is rated 8.6. The top reviewer of OWASP Zap writes "Open-source, easy to install, feature-rich, with good heads-up display and community resources". On the other hand, the top reviewer of PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional writes "Excellent Intruder, Repeater, and Proxy features". OWASP Zap is most compared with Veracode, Acunetix, Qualys Web Application Scanning, SonarQube and Fortify WebInspect, whereas PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional is most compared with Fortify WebInspect, Acunetix, SonarQube, Qualys Web Application Scanning and Tenable.io Web Application Scanning. See our OWASP Zap vs. PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional report.
See our list of best Application Security Testing (AST) vendors.
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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.
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.
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 quality security vulnerabilities. Both are very comparable in terms of intercepting features, fuzzing capabilities, and encoder and decoders. Both OWASP Zap and PortSwigger Burp Suite Pro have a spider feature, and provide updates.
One big difference between the two, though, is price. OWASP Zap is free, but Burp Suite Pro requires a paid subscription (currently $399 per year). OWASP Zap is maintained by volunteers whereas Burp Suite Pro is a commercial product maintained and sold by PortSwigger, which makes me feel more confident in it. In addition, OWASP Zap provides little documentation, which may be why some people prefer Burp Suite Pro (which offers extensive documentation). Moreover, Burp Suite Pro includes more coverage than OWASP Zap. But it is also worth noting that OWASP Zap has more false positives than Burp Suite Pro.
I like Burp Suite Pro’s interface a lot more than OWASP Zap’s. Another big plus for me with Burp is its Comparer tab,which allows for easier change detection. OWASP Zap does not include this feature without extensions and a ZAP plugin is required. Another thing about OWASP Zap I dislike is that the ability to search for text in the request or server response is difficult, while Burp Suite Pro makes it easier and more accessible.
Conclusion:
In my opinion, Burp Suite Pro is better than OWASP Zap because of its features, which I feel make it a better choice for security professionals. Both OWASP Zap and Burp Suite Pro have good sets of capabilities. However, Burp Suite Pro excels in the specific capabilities I need in more ways that OWASP Zap does.