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Rapid7 InsightAppSec vs StackHawk comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

Rapid7 InsightAppSec
Ranking in Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST)
5th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
20
Ranking in other categories
AI Observability (11th)
StackHawk
Ranking in Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST)
8th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
2.2
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST) category, the mindshare of Rapid7 InsightAppSec is 6.2%, up from 4.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of StackHawk is 1.2%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Rapid7 InsightAppSec6.2%
StackHawk1.2%
Other92.6%
Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST)
 

Featured Reviews

Shritam Bhowmick - PeerSpot reviewer
Vulnerability Management Lead at garrett
Provides reliable applications security but needs better integration options
There are areas for improvements regarding false positives. Integration capabilities are lacking, as options for integrations with other tools such as SNOW, Jira, or other integration tools are not sufficient in Rapid7 InsightAppSec. The user interface sometimes has glitches, which may prevent appropriate results during navigation, and even when we get appropriate results, it can be impossible to export them to CSV records or download files. Regarding scalability, Rapid7 InsightAppSec is not a scalable solution for our industry due to limited integration capabilities. Rapid7 relies on another tool called InsightConnect, which requires additional investment, detracting from scalability. Another area that needs improvement is the integration of AI capabilities into the platform. Both Rapid7 InsightAppSec and InsightVM need to advance in that area. In terms of behavioral and pattern recognition, identifying complex attacks such as SQL, blind SQL, JSON, and LDAP injections often results in 94% false positives. This necessitates improvement in their behavioral-based analytics feature.
reviewer2795271 - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager Sec Ops at a real estate/law firm with 501-1,000 employees
Automated security checks have transformed PCI compliance and provide unified vulnerability insights
I cannot think of anything I would add to StackHawk, with the possible exception of adding any additional code bases that might be out there. I am thinking about a situation where a company might be in mergers and acquisitions mode and they onboard a company that has developed an application in a code base that is not covered by StackHawk, which would introduce some inefficiency and possible compliance difficulties. It would be great if StackHawk were continuously adding more and more languages and integrations. On a scale of one to ten, I would rate StackHawk an eight, only because I wish the product was a little less expensive. It also is running into direct competition with Snyk, as they did an acquisition of another DAST company, and they should be sensitive to that and possibly offer a discount for current users because it would be under consideration to move to Snyk and reduce complexity even if it was by a little bit.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Rapid7 InsightAppSec helps us in both regulatory compliance and in strengthening our security posture."
"The templates feature is very easy. You just choose the kind of attack you want on your web application, and you run it against that template and receive a report. It's great."
"It uses a signature-based method to check for problems with your code and will provide an alert if anything is found."
"The initial setup for us was easy enough. We didn't face too many issues. Deployment took maybe 30 minutes. It's quite quick and doesn't cause too much trouble at the outset."
"We have seen measurable decrease in the mean time to respond to threats by 20 percent."
"Relatively speaking, InsightAppSec is good compared to Insight VM."
"Dynamic application security scanning provides predefined templates and supports customization. The ability to scan external and internal applications, including on-premises ones, is precious. Additionally, it is a cloud platform, so we don't need to deploy servers or resources. This makes it time-efficient and cost-effective."
"The product’s most valuable feature is UI. It is easy to manage and find vulnerabilities in the application."
"StackHawk has positively impacted my organization by introducing an automated process that did not exist previously, and it helped the company achieve PCI certification."
 

Cons

"I required a solution to manage on-premises, but I was not as satisfied as expected."
"We get a lot of false positives during the tests."
"The reporting is definitely an aspect of the solution that's in need of some work. We found that we'd try to use widgets, but often getting them to work for us wasn't very clear. They need to be more user friendly or offer better instructions."
"Currently, InsightAppSec lacks similar functionality. Customers must wait for remediation during the developers' preparation of a new version."
"Currently, InsightAppSec lacks similar functionality. Customers must wait for remediation during the developers' preparation of a new version."
"When you add new projects for the same product, it either duplicates or replaces the scan configuration. If I run a scan for the same product with a different scan configuration, it should keep the previous scan configuration and not replace it with the new scan configuration. It should just add the new scan configuration. That would be helpful. They do keep the results as it is, but the scan configuration keeps changing. For example, I have set a scan configuration to a full scan, and next week, I want to run a new scan for the same product with some changes or new functionalities. I want to run a partial scan. Currently, if I change the scan configuration to partial, it changes the old one also to partial. That should be improved."
"The only concern I have with Rapid7 is that it does not provide enough information about vulnerabilities within AppSec."
"Rapid7 InsightAppSec needs improvement in detecting phishing pages."
"On a scale of one to ten, I would rate StackHawk an eight, only because I wish the product was a little less expensive."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"They offer a good price, but I don't remember its cost. It is fair as compared to the competition. We have opted for project-based licensing, not user-based. We can add any number of users. That doesn't matter. It is worth the money."
"I'm not sure how much it costs exactly, but I know it's expensive."
"The price of this product is very cheap."
"Its price is competitive. It is not expensive."
"I rate Rapid7 InsightAppSec’s pricing an eight out of ten."
"Rapid7 InsightAppSec is cheap."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Government
11%
Computer Software Company
10%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business12
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise5
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Rapid7 InsightAppSec?
In Rapid7 InsightAppSec, a distinctive feature is the provision of a CDM for integrating web servers and web applications. To establish the connection between these applications, you only need to p...
What needs improvement with Rapid7 InsightAppSec?
Customers sometimes experience issues with performance. One thing that I recall is that most customers often want to have reporting as per their customized dashboard. This needs to be improved beca...
What is your primary use case for Rapid7 InsightAppSec?
I usually recommend this solution for financial institutions. Banks and financial institutions need this solution mostly because they have to follow stringent compliance advisory requirements, so t...
What needs improvement with StackHawk?
I cannot think of anything I would add to StackHawk, with the possible exception of adding any additional code bases that might be out there. I am thinking about a situation where a company might b...
What is your primary use case for StackHawk?
My main use case for StackHawk is primarily as a PCI requirement for DAST. As a quick specific example of how I use StackHawk for that PCI requirement, it is one of the controls that sits alongside...
What advice do you have for others considering StackHawk?
StackHawk is deployed in my organization in the public cloud using the configuration on their site. I use AWS as my cloud provider. I rate this product an eight out of ten.
 

Also Known As

InsightAppSec
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

CenterPoint Energy, CPA Australia, Hypertherm, First American Financial Corporation, Rackspace
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Veracode, Checkmarx, OpenText and others in Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST). Updated: February 2026.
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