OWASP Zap vs PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional comparison

OWASP Zap vs. PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional

Download the complete report

Helped 890,088 peers since 2012

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)

5th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Security Tools (6th), Fuzz Testing Tools (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2026, in the Static Application Security Testing (SAST) category, the mindshare of OWASP Zap is 3.2%, down from 4.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional is 2.5%, up from 2.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Static Application Security Testing (SAST) Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional	2.5%
OWASP Zap	3.2%
Other	94.3%

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.

Read full review

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

"One valuable feature of OWASP Zap is that it is simple to use."

"The community edition updates services regularly. They add new vulnerabilities into the scanning list."

"This solution has improved my organization because it has made us feel safer doing frequent deployments for web applications. If we have something really big, we might get some professional company in to help us but if we're releasing small products, we will check it ourselves with Zap. It makes it easier and safer."

"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 enables a person to add the certificate and check the queries, to see if there are any that are undefined, so a person can have a list of the types of queries and can trace them."

"The vulnerabilities that it finds, because the primary goal is to secure applications and websites."

"The solution is very easy to use, the initial setup is straightforward, it is free due to the fact that it is open-source, the stability is very good, and the product has a strong community surrounding it to help with issues and troubleshooting."

"It's great that we can use it with Portswigger Burp."

More OWASP Zap pros

"This is one of the best tools that I'm using; I found this one much better."

"The most valuable feature is the application security."

"The Repeater and the BApp extensions are particularly useful. Certain extensions, such as the Active Scan extensions and the Autoracer extension, are very good."

"BurpSuite helps us to identify and fix silly mistakes that are sometimes introduced by our developers in their coding."

"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."

"There is no other tool like it. I like the intuitiveness and the plugins that are available."

"The most valuable feature of PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional is the advanced features, user-friendly interface, and integration with other tools."

"I personally love its capability to automatically and accurately detect vulnerabilities. So, I would say it is the Burp scanner that is THE most powerful, valuable, and an awesome feature."

More PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional pros

Cons

"Online documentation can be improved to utilize all features of ZAP and API methods to make use in automation."

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

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

"We get too many false positives and that should definitely be improved."

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

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

"It would be nice to have a solid SQL injection engine built into Zap."

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

More OWASP Zap cons

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

"In general, there's not much to complain about but the stability of the tool is not good enough."

"The one feature that I would like to see in Burp is active scanning of REST based web services. A lot of organizations are providing APIs to access their services to support different business models like SaaS. Scanning these APIs is still a challenge for many security product companies."

"BurpSuite has some issues regarding authentication with OAT tokens that need to be improved."

"Sometimes the solution can run a little slow."

"The tool is very expensive."

"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."

"In the Professional version, we cannot link it with the CI/CD process."

More PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The tool is open-source."

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

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

"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 is open source, and we can scan freely."

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

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

"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."

More OWASP Zap pricing and cost advice

"PortSwigger is reasonably-priced. It's fair."

"The solution used to be expensive. However, they have reduced the price to approximately $400.00 which is reasonable."

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

"The pricing of the solution is cost-effective and is best suited for small and medium-sized businesses."

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

"PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional is an expensive solution."

"The pricing of the solution is reasonable. We only need to pay for the annual subscription. I rate the pricing five out of ten."

"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."

More PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Static Application Security Testing (SAST) solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

890,088 professionals have used our research since 2012.

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.

Read full answer

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

11%

University

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Government

10%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software 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?

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...

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.

What do you like most about PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional?

The solution helped us discover vulnerabilities in our applications.

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.

What needs improvement with PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional?

Checkmarx One vs OWASP Zap

Comparisons

Acunetix vs OWASP Zap

Compared 12% of the time

SonarQube vs OWASP Zap

Compared 11% of the time

Veracode vs OWASP Zap

Compared 8% of the time

Compared 7% of the time

Qualys Web Application Scanning vs OWASP Zap

Compared 6% of the time

More OWASP Zap Competitors

OpenText Dynamic Application Security Testing vs PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional

Compared 13% of the time

Acunetix vs PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional

Compared 6% of the time

Software Risk Manager ASPM vs PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional

Compared 6% of the time

SonarQube vs PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional

Compared 6% of the time

HCL AppScan vs PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional

Compared 5% of the time

More PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional Competitors

Product Reports

OWASP Zap

Download OWASP Zap product report

PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional

Download PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional product report

PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional 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

PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional is a vital tool for cybersecurity experts, valued for features like Intruder and Repeater, and offering strong automation for effective vulnerability detection and web security.

PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional aids organizations in conducting comprehensive application security testing. With functions like scanning, proxy setup, and numerous plugins, it provides essential support for vulnerability assessments and penetration testing. Despite needing improvements in reporting, false positive reduction, and scanning speed, it remains adaptable for different security operations through its automation, extensive community support, and regular updates. Licensing and pricing flexibility are considerations, alongside API security enhancements and documentation improvements. Widely used for intercepting and scanning web applications pre-launch, it supports compliance testing while offering tools for request replaying, traffic manipulation, and brute forcing.

What are the key features of PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional?

Intruder: Automates attacks to test web application vulnerabilities.
Repeater: Lets users send modified requests to observe responses.
Extender: Supports additional functionalities through plugins.
API Support: Offers capabilities for automated workflows and integrations.
Vulnerability Scanner: Efficiently detects application security flaws.

What benefits should users consider?

Affordable Pricing: Offers value through cost-effective plans.
Community Support: Access a robust network for troubleshooting and advice.
Automation Capabilities: Streamlines security testing processes.
Regular Updates: Continuous improvements and feature developments.

In industries like finance and healthcare, PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional is implemented to enhance application security frameworks. It provides critical insights for regulatory compliance and risk management. The tool's adaptability supports organizations in routinely identifying and addressing vulnerabilities, ensuring robust protection against potential threats and facilitating secure application launches.

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

OWASP Zap vs. PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional