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 #9 with an average rating of 8.2, while PortSwigger is ranked #5 with an average rating of 9.0. OWASP holds a 3.4% mindshare in SAST, compared to PortSwigger’s 2.4% 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

7,440 Views
6,845 Comparison Views

88% willing to recommend

PortSwigger Burp Suite Prof...

Read 65 PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional reviews

5,991 Views
3,595 Comparison Views

98% willing to recommend

OWASP Zap

PortSwigger Burp Suite Prof...

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 8, 2026

PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional and OWASP Zap are prominent competitors in web application security testing tools. Burp Suite often has the upper hand due to its extensive features and more integrated approach, while Zap stands out for its cost-free accessibility, benefiting budget-conscious users.

Features: Burp Suite Professional offers a comprehensive suite including Proxy, Repeater, and Intruder, with robust auto-scanning and vulnerability detection. It supports customizable payloads and extensions through an active community. OWASP Zap provides features like automated scanning, a unique Heads Up Display, and manual testing capabilities, thriving as an open-source platform that benefits from extensive community-backed enhancements.

Room for Improvement: Burp Suite users seek better integration options, improved reporting functionalities, and reduced false positives, particularly in REST API testing. OWASP Zap can enhance reporting templates and provide regular feature updates, along with improved documentation and integration features to bridge the gap with Burp's functionality.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Both tools primarily deploy on-premises, with Burp Suite also available in private and hybrid clouds. Burp's direct technical support is praised for its responsiveness, while Zap's community forums serve as a primary resource due to its open-source nature.

Pricing and ROI: Burp Suite Professional is recognized for its high-value features, though its licenses might be costly for smaller businesses, yet offering substantial ROI through its reliability and comprehensive capabilities. OWASP Zap, being entirely free and open-source, is invaluable for budget-restricted organizations, despite lacking some premium features found in Burp Suite.

To learn more, read our detailed OWASP Zap vs. PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional Report (Updated: March 2026).

Buyer's Guide

OWASP Zap vs. PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional

March 2026

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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)

9th

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)

5th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Security Tools (8th), Fuzz Testing Tools (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Static Application Security Testing (SAST) category, the mindshare of OWASP Zap is 3.4%, down from 4.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional is 2.4%, up from 2.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Static Application Security Testing (SAST) Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional	2.4%
OWASP Zap	3.4%
Other	94.2%

Static Application Security Testing (SAST)

Featured Reviews

Nithin-K

Technical Analyst at Hexaware Technologies Limited

Open source testing tool empowers manual activities and has room to improve integration and reporting features

The improvement that has to be done for APIs focuses on manual activities where the feature exists, but it is not at the same level as what Burp Suite does with intercepting and tools such as Postman, so it needs improvement. There are limitations with authentication levels, particularly with form-based and cookie-based authentication. However, overall, we are satisfied with OWASP Zap as there are no major issues, and improving the scan engine could be beneficial. When comparing OWASP Zap and Burp Suite, the main difference besides pricing is that OWASP Zap has limitations with reporting levels and UI, which affects its reporting capabilities, whereas Burp Suite is already advancing with new AI features and scanning capabilities that OWASP Zap seems to be lacking.

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Moti Huberman

Penetration Tester & Information Security Expert at a comms service provider with 11-50 employees

Dedicated browser and repeater have improved my proxy testing and manual vulnerability checks

I'm hoping perhaps for something to make it easier, such as to define things where if a message or a response is such and such, automatically make a request that is such and such. Perhaps something like this because otherwise, nowadays we have to do it manually. Perhaps they can automate it a bit more. Perhaps they could add some automation to things, to see what we do manually, which it has the tools to do manually, and perhaps enable with a click of a button to do things automatically. I'm not too sure which, but I'm sure they can from a product management point of view, do things that we need to do two, three, or four steps manually regarding specific testing. For instance, we want to check something specific if it's this or if it's that. Perhaps to define it once and have it more automatic, perhaps.

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

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

"It updates repositories and libraries quickly."

"The product discovers more vulnerabilities compared to other tools."

"OWASP Zap is straightforward to use. If someone doesn't have the budget for tools like Burp Suite, OWASP Zap is an excellent alternative."

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

"Simple to use, good user interface."

"The OWASP's tool is free of cost, which gives it a great advantage, especially for smaller companies to make use of the tool."

"Fuzzer and Java APIs help a lot with our custom needs."

More OWASP Zap pros

"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."

""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 Professional is superior in quite a few options."

"PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional is one of the best user-friendly solutions for getting the proxy set up."

"The Spider is the most useful feature. It helps to analyze the entire web application, and it finds all the passes and offers an automated identification of security issues."

"PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional has an intercept tab that helps us to scan our APIs, set the response, and request errors."

"I find the attack model quite amazing, where I can write my scripts and load my scripts as well, which helps quite a bit. All the active scanning that it can do is also quite a lot helpful. It speeds up our vulnerability assessment and penetration testing. Right now, I am enjoying its in-browser, which also helps quite a bit. I'm always confused about setting up some proxy, but it really is the big solution we all want."

"I find all the features of PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional most useful, particularly the AI enhancement for results and follow-up for retests."

More PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional pros

Cons

"When comparing OWASP Zap and Burp Suite, the main difference besides pricing is that OWASP Zap has limitations with reporting levels and UI, which affects its reporting capabilities, whereas Burp Suite is already advancing with new AI features and scanning capabilities that OWASP Zap seems to be lacking."

"Lacks resources where users can internally access a learning module from the tool."

"ZAP's integration with cloud-based CICD pipelines could be better. The scan should run through the entire pipeline."

"OWASP Zap needs to extend to mobile application testing."

"For scalability, I would rate OWASP Zap between four to five out of ten."

"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."

"The solution is unable to customize reports."

"The documentation is lacking and out-of-date, it really needs more love."

More OWASP Zap cons

"There could be an improvement in the API security testing. There is another tool called Postman and if we had a built-in portal similar to Postman which captures the API, we would be able to generate the API traffic. Right now we need a Postman tool and the Burp Suite for performing API tests. It would be a huge benefit to be able to do it in a single UI."

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

"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 tool is very expensive."

"There is not much automation in the tool."

"We wish that the Spider feature would appear in the same shape that it does in previous versions."

"Scanning needs to be improved in enterprise and professional versions."

"Currently, the scanning is only available in the full version of Burp, and not in the Community version."

More PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"OWASP Zap is free to use."

"OWASP ZAP is a free tool provided by OWASP’s engineers and experts. There is an option to donate."

"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."

"The tool is open source."

"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."

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

"The solution’s pricing is high."

More OWASP Zap pricing and cost advice

"Our licensing cost is approximately $400 USD per year."

"We are using the community version, which is free."

"There are different licenses available that include a free version."

"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."

"It has a yearly license. I am satisfied with its price."

"For a country such as Sri Lanka, the pricing is not reasonable."

"There is no setup cost and the cost of licensing is affordable."

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

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

12%

University

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Government

11%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	11
Midsize Enterprise	11
Large Enterprise	21

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	17
Midsize Enterprise	14
Large Enterprise	35

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?

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 14% of the time

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Compared 13% of the time

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Compared 8% of the time

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Compared 8% of the time

Qualys Web Application Scanning vs OWASP Zap

Compared 6% of the time

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Compared 12% of the time

Acunetix vs PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional

Compared 7% of the time

SonarQube vs PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional

Compared 6% of the time

Software Risk Manager ASPM vs PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional

Compared 5% of the time

HCL AppScan vs PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional

Compared 4% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

OWASP Zap

February 2026

Download OWASP Zap product report

Buyer's Guide

PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional

February 2026

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

March 2026

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: March 2026.

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