OWASP Zap vs PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional comparison

OWASP and PortSwigger are both solutions in the Static Application Security Testing (SAST) category. OWASP is ranked #11 with an average rating of 8.0, while PortSwigger is ranked #6 with an average rating of 8.8. OWASP holds a 4.7% mindshare in SAST, compared to PortSwigger’s 2.0% mindshare. Additionally, 88% of OWASP users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 98% of PortSwigger users who would recommend it.

OWASP Zap

Read 41 OWASP Zap reviews

8,982 Views
8,174 Comparison Views

88% willing to recommend

PortSwigger Burp Suite Prof...

Read 64 PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional reviews

4,607 Views
2,948 Comparison Views

98% willing to recommend

OWASP Zap

PortSwigger Burp Suite Prof...

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 27, 2025

PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional and OWASP Zap compete in the web application security testing category. Burp Suite holds the upper hand due to its automated scanning and customization capabilities, while OWASP Zap is favored for cost-free usage.

Features: PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional offers features like Proxy, Repeater, and Extender, supported by an extensive BApp store for additional modules. The Intruder provides customizable payloads, making it stand out for thorough security assessments. OWASP Zap is preferred for its spidering, proxies, and automated scanning, complemented by a user-friendly interface.

Room for Improvement: Burp Suite could improve by reducing false positives and enhancing scanning for RESTful services, with better documentation suggested for new users. OWASP Zap users see room for growth in API security, report customization, and expanding vulnerability scanning capabilities.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Both tools offer strong deployment options, mainly on-premises, with some cloud capabilities. Burp Suite provides comprehensive technical support and resources like webinars. OWASP Zap has extensive community support but could improve response time and availability.

Pricing and ROI: Burp Suite is noted for offering significant ROI despite higher initial licensing fees, with community versions and various licensing options available. Conversely, OWASP Zap is completely free, appealing to early-stage companies and cost-conscious users, though it requires more manual intervention for advanced needs.

To learn more, read our detailed OWASP Zap vs. PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

OWASP Zap vs. PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional

July 2025

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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

OWASP Zap

Ranking in Static Application Security Testing (SAST)

11th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

PortSwigger Burp Suite Prof...

Ranking in Static Application Security Testing (SAST)

6th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Security Tools (10th), Fuzz Testing Tools (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Static Application Security Testing (SAST) category, the mindshare of OWASP Zap is 4.7%, up from 4.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional is 2.0%, up from 1.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Static Application Security Testing (SAST)

Featured Reviews

Amit Beniwal

Project Manager at Al Hassan LLC

Simplifies vulnerability discovery and has high quality support

There are areas for improvement with OWASP Zap, particularly in the alignment of vulnerabilities concerning CVSS scores. Sometimes, a vulnerability initially categorized as high severity may be reduced to medium or low over time after security patches are applied. This alignment with the present severity score and CVSS score could be improved.

Read full review

Anuradha.Kapoor Kapoor

Head - Quality Control at Net Solutions

Offers efficient scanning of entire websites but presence of false positive bugs, leading to time-consuming efforts in distinguishing real bugs from false alarms

We have found that so many times, false positive bugs are there, and then we spend a lot of time basically separating them from real bugs. So that's the reason we are looking for some other tool. So we were in discussion with Acunetix. Therefore, the false positive rate is, like, something that we would like to improve. What we are looking for is if this false positive rate goes down because we were OWASP Zap tool users, which was free anyway. But there were a lot of false positives there, and we used to spend a lot of time, like, for security reasons, reproducing those bugs for the development team to fix it. So then we thought, okay, why not we go with the tool? Even if it is not very expensive. But still, every year, we have to renew the license. And we got this tool. Again, we found that in this tool also, even if it is less, there are still a lot of false positive bugs out there. So we again have to spend so much time. So we hired a security tester, who was basically using Acunetix in his previous company for almost three years, and then you said that in that scanning is very slow. The scanning is also slow. Like, sometimes the site scan takes eight hours, six to eight hours. Yeah. And whereas in Acunetix, it took three to four hours. And plus, there are no false positives. I'm not saying none but there's very little. But here, the rate sometimes is very high. These are the two features I think we would like to improve further.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The product helps users to scan and fix vulnerabilities in the pipeline."

"We use the solution for security testing."

"I consider OWASP Zap to be the most effective solution overall; being open source allows integration with other systems via OWASP Zap APIs."

"Automatic scanning is a valuable feature and very easy to use."

"The application scanning feature is the most valuable feature."

"You can run it against multiple targets."

"The solution is good at reporting the vulnerabilities of the application."

"The ZAP scan and code crawler are valuable features."

More OWASP Zap pros

"The suite testing models are very good. It's very secure."

"The intercepting feature is the most valuable."

"I have found the best features to be the performance and there are a lot of additional plugins available."

"The most valuable feature is the application security. It also has a reasonable price."

"The most valuable feature of Burp Suite Professional is its ability to schedule tasks for scanning websites, which helps in performing regular checks of IP addresses."

"It's good testing software."

"This tool is more accurate than the other solutions that we use, and reports fewer false positives."

"In my area of expertise, I feel like it has almost everything I could possibly require at this moment."

More PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional pros

Cons

"OWASP Zap could benefit from a noise cancellation feature like that of Burp Suite Professional, where AI helps reduce certain non-critical findings."

"The product reporting could be improved."

"The forced browse has been incorporated into the program and it is resource-intensive."

"The automated vulnerability assessments that the application performs needs to be simplified as well as diversified."

"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."

"Reporting format has no output, is cluttered and very long."

"OWASP should work on reducing false positives by using AI and ML algorithms."

"It would be ideal if I could try some pre-built deployment scenarios so that I don't have to worry about whether the configuration sector team is doing it right or wrong. That would be very helpful."

More OWASP Zap cons

"There is not much automation in the tool."

"I would like to see a more optimized solution, as it currently uses a lot of CPU power and memory."

"As with most automated security tools, too many false positives."

"PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional could improve the static code review."

"You can have many false positives in Burp Suite. It depends on the scale of the penetration testing."

"The use of system memory is an area that can be improved because it uses a lot."

"One thing that is not up to the mark in PortSwigger is web application testing. I found some issues with its performance and reporting. They should work on these and give us a better outcome."

"A lot of our interns find it difficult to get used to PortSwigger Burp's environment."

More PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"As Zap is free and open-source, with tons of features similar to those of commercial solutions, I would definitely recommend trying it out."

"This app is completely free and open source. So there is no question about any pricing."

"We have used the freeware version. I believe Zap only has freeware."

"This is an open-source solution and can be used free of charge."

"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."

"The tool is open-source."

"It is highly recommended as it is an open source tool."

"OWASP Zap is free to use."

More OWASP Zap pricing and cost advice

"We have one license. The price is very nominal."

"This solution requires a license. It is expensive but you receive a lot of functionality for the price."

"The price for the solution is expensive and could be cheaper. We pay an annual license and our team has several of them."

"The solution is reasonably priced."

"They should reduce the license cost a little bit. It is $400 per user, and it would be better if they could reduce the licensing fee."

"At $400 or $500 per license paid annually, it is a very cheap tool."

"It is expensive for us in Brazil because the currency exchange rate from a dollar to a Brazilian Real is quite steep."

"The yearly cost is about $300."

More PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional pricing and cost advice

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Answers from the Community

reviewer1487928

Subdirector de Seguridad Informática e Infraestructura at a financial services firm with 201-500 employees

Nov 17, 2021

Is OWASP Zap better than PortSwigger Burp Suite Pro?

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 spide...

2 out of 3 answers

Avinash-Kumar

MCE at CGI

Mar 15, 2021

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.

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reviewer1526550

Lead Security Architect at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees

Mar 17, 2021

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.

Read full answer

See all 3 answers

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

17%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

University

Computer Software Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Government

11%

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

Is OWASP Zap better than PortSwigger Burp Suite Pro?

See all answers

What do you like most about OWASP Zap?

The best feature is the Zap HUD (Heads Up Display) because the customers can use the website normally. If we scan websites with automatic scanning, and the website has a web application firewall, i...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for OWASP Zap?

OWASP might be cost-effective, however, people prefer to use the free edition available as open source.

See all answers

What do you like most about PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional?

The solution helped us discover vulnerabilities in our applications.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional?

The cost of PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional is reasonable at approximately $500 per year per user.

See all answers

What needs improvement with PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional?

The only potential improvement would be adding Postman integration specifically for APIs.

See all answers

Comparisons

SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) vs OWASP Zap

Compared 19% of the time

Acunetix vs OWASP Zap

Compared 14% of the time

Checkmarx One vs OWASP Zap

Compared 11% of the time

Qualys Web Application Scanning vs OWASP Zap

Compared 9% of the time

OpenText Dynamic Application Security Testing vs OWASP Zap

Compared 4% of the time

More OWASP Zap Competitors

Acunetix vs PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional

Compared 16% of the time

OpenText Dynamic Application Security Testing vs PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional

Compared 13% of the time

SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) vs PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional

Compared 7% of the time

HCL AppScan vs PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional

Compared 6% of the time

Nucleus vs PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional

Compared 6% of the time

More PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

OWASP Zap

August 2025

Download OWASP Zap product report

Buyer's Guide

PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional

August 2025

PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional report

Download PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional product report

Also Known As

No data available

Burp

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.

OWASP

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.

PortSwigger

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

Buyer's Guide

OWASP Zap vs. PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional

July 2025

Free Report: OWASP Zap vs. PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional

Find out what your peers are saying about OWASP Zap vs. PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.

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