Contrast Security Assess vs GitHub comparison

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Contrast Security Assess

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 25, 2026

GitHub and Contrast Security Assess are competing in collaborative development and application security, respectively. GitHub has an advantage due to attractive pricing and reliable support, while Contrast excels with its strong security features, preferred by teams focusing on security despite higher costs.

Features: GitHub provides version control, code collaboration, and tool integration tailored for development efficiency. Contrast Security Assess includes vulnerability scanning, extensive security analysis, and continuous monitoring, making it ideal for enhancing application security.

Room for Improvement: GitHub could enhance its project management tools, improve visibility for its DevOps integration capabilities, and offer more robust native security features. Contrast Security Assess might improve user interface complexity, broaden integration capabilities with more development tools, and refine its deployment process for easier use by smaller teams.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: GitHub offers simple cloud and on-premise deployment models with excellent customer support, easily fitting into development workflows. Contrast Security Assess involves a more complex deployment due to its advanced security integrations, though backed by thorough customer assistance, facilitating its use despite initial complexity.

Pricing and ROI: GitHub is cost-effective for budget-aware teams, providing strong ROI in collaborative settings due to low setup costs. Contrast Security Assess requires higher investment attributed to its specialized security features but returns significant ROI by safeguarding against application vulnerabilities.

To learn more, read our detailed Contrast Security Assess vs. GitHub Report (Updated: February 2026).

Contrast Security Assess vs. GitHub

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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

Contrast Security Assess

Ranking in Application Security Tools

30th

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Static Application Security Testing (SAST) (27th)

GitHub

Ranking in Application Security Tools

4th

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Version Control (3rd), Agile and DevOps Services (2nd)

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Application Security Tools category, the mindshare of Contrast Security Assess is 1.3%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of GitHub is 1.3%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Security Tools Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
GitHub	1.3%
Contrast Security Assess	1.3%
Other	97.4%

Application Security Tools

Featured Reviews

reviewer1605099

Director of Threat and Vulnerability Management at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees

We're gathering vulnerability data from multiple environments in real time, fundamentally changing how we identify issues in applications

The solution is very accurate in identifying vulnerabilities. In cases where we are performing application assessment using Contrast Assess, and also using legacy application security testing tools, Contrast successfully identifies the same vulnerabilities that the other tools have identified but it also identifies significantly more. In addition, it has visibility into application components that other testing methodologies are unaware of. Assess also provides the option of helping developers incorporate security elements while they're writing code. It depends on whether individual developers decide to utilize the information that's provided to them from the solution, but it definitely gives them visibility into more environments. It gives them an opportunity to remediate vulnerabilities well before production deployments.

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Murathan OK

Software Development Manager at a media company with 10,001+ employees

CI/CD workflows have become streamlined and AI support has improved collaborative development

We are using GitHub because it is open-source software, which is the most valuable solution for us. The open source and community support are very good. We are always up-to-date with the community, and integration difficulty is very low. If you integrate any CI/CD solutions on GitHub, it's very easy. We started using GitHub about three months ago with AI integration. For our deployments, some developers can be very shy about asking for descriptions on their commits. We are using AI support for comments and deployment management, which is beautiful. We are not using the GitHub API for automating workflows in our projects. I give GitHub a five-star rating for the review capabilities. I also give GitHub five stars for integration with third-party applications. There is a lot of integration available on GitHub. If you want to integrate something, even if it could be integrated before GitHub, you can make your code and integrate your own in-house applications. It's a very easy and powerful aspect of GitHub.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"In our most critical applications, we have a deep dive in the code evaluation, which was something we usually did with periodic vulnerability assessments, code reviews, etc. Now, we have real time access to it. It's something that has greatly enhanced our code's quality. We have actually embedded a KPI in regards to the improvement of our code shell. For example, Contrast provides a baseline where libraries and the usability of the code are evaluated, and they produce a score. We always aim to improve that score. On a quarterly basis, we have added this to our KPIs."

"The solution is very accurate in identifying vulnerabilities. In cases where we are performing application assessment using Contrast Assess, and also using legacy application security testing tools, Contrast successfully identifies the same vulnerabilities that the other tools have identified but it also identifies significantly more. In addition, it has visibility into application components that other testing methodologies are unaware of."

"This has changed the way that developers are looking at usage of third-party libraries, upfront. It's changing our model of development and our culture of development to ensure that there is more thought being put into the usage of third-party libraries."

"Assess has an excellent API interface to pull APIs."

"When we access the application, it continuously monitors and detects vulnerabilities."

"By far, the thing that was able to provide value was the immediate response while testing ahead of release, in real-time."

"No other tool does the runtime scanning like Contrast does. Other static analysis tools do static scanning, but Contrast is runtime analysis, when the routes are exercised. That's when the scan happens. This is a tool that has a very unique capability compared to other tools. That's what I like most about Contrast, that it's runtime."

"I am impressed with the product's identification of alerts and vulnerabilities."

More Contrast Security Assess pros

"The most valuable feature is the source code management. It's very helpful and it's a great product."

"It is really simple to set up."

"I'm able to access any repository that I like, whether it's public or private."

"This solution is just easy to use."

"I actually appreciate that I can create a developer profile that is outside of work, and that is also technical, not necessarily related to LinkedIn."

"GitHub is pure or open-source; you can access it anywhere. You can have a lot of collateral information. You can make the changes and do the reviews from one place."

"I appreciate saving from Visual Studio Code that implements changes directly on GitHub."

"Any complex banking can be handled very easily in GitHub. It allows us to integrate with tools like Grid, where we can merge and resolve conflicts without any hassle."

More GitHub pros

Cons

"The solution needs to improve flexibility...The scalability of the product is a problem in the solution, especially from a commercial perspective."

"The out-of-the-box reporting could be improved. We need to write our own APIs to make the reporting more robust."

"Contrast's ability to support upgrades on the actual agents that get deployed is limited. Our environment is pretty much entirely Java. There are no updates associated with that. You have to actually download a new version of the .jar file and push that out to your servers where your app is hosted. That can be quite cumbersome from a change-management perspective."

"The product's retesting part needs improvement. The tool also needs improvement in the suggestions provided for fixing vulnerabilities. It relies more on documentation rather than on quick fixes."

"I would like to see them come up with more scanning rules."

"Personalization of the board and how to make it appealing to an organization is something that could be done on their end. The reports could be adaptable to the customer's preferences."

"The solution should provide more details in the section where it shows that third-party libraries have CVEs or some vulnerabilities."

"The setup of the solution is different for each application. That's the one thing that has been a challenge for us. The deployment itself is simple, but it's tough to automate because each application is different, so each installation process for Contrast is different."

More Contrast Security Assess cons

"Scalability is an area with a shortcoming, because of which it has room for improvement."

"If you are uploading or cloning a large file, with more than 25 megs, it's pretty slow."

"In complex cases, we have to use the terminal for conflict resolution. If those conflicts could be resolved visually in the editor, that would be much better."

"The user interface on GitLab is better."

"We are not able to access GitHub from our VPN."

"Lacks sufficient support in terms of professional services that could be provided."

"GitHub could expand the limits of the free version."

"GitHub could automate the setup process more, such as creating YAML files for GitHub Actions."

More GitHub cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"You only get one license for an application. Ours are very big, monolithic applications with millions of lines of code. We were able to apply one license to one monolithic application, which is great. We are happy with the licensing. Pricing-wise, they are industry-standard, which is fine."

"The good news is that the agent itself comes in two different forms: the unlicensed form and the licensed form. Unlicensed gives use of that software composition analysis for free. Thereafter, if you apply a license to that same agent, that's when the instrumentation takes hold. So one of my suggestions is to do what we're doing: Deploy the agent to as many applications as possible, with just the SCA feature turned on with no license applied, and then you can be more choosy and pick which teams will get the license applied."

"The product's pricing is low. I would rate it a two out of ten."

"I like the per-application licensing model... We just license the app and we look at different vulnerabilities on that app and we remediate within the app. It's simpler."

"It's a tiered licensing model. The more you buy, as you cross certain quantity thresholds, the pricing changes. If you have a smaller environment, your licensing costs are going to be different than a larger environment... The licensing is primarily per application. An application can be as many agents as you need. If you've got 10 development servers and 20 production servers and 50 QA servers, all of those agents can be reporting as a single application that utilizes one license."

"The solution is expensive."

"For what it offers, it's a very reasonable cost. The way that it is priced is extremely straightforward. It works on the number of applications that you use, and you license a server. It is something that is extremely fair, because it doesn't take into consideration the number of requests, etc. It is only priced based on the number of onboarded applications. It suits our model as well, because we have huge traffic. Our number of applications is not that large, so the pricing works great for us."

"It's cheaper than Bitbucket."

"I use the free version of the tool."

"I am using the free version of the solution. However, there are some costs my organization pays."

"There are no licensing fees for the features that we use."

"I haven't had to pay anything for GitHub, I use the free version."

"The private repositories are free, which is very good."

"We have an enterprise licensing agreement, and I am not part of the finance department so I can't say how much it costs."

"GitHub is an open-source product, but when using the free-to-use version, anyone can see the code we're working on."

More GitHub pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

22%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Computer Software Company

10%

Comms Service Provider

Marketing Services Firm

11%

Financial Services Firm

Comms Service Provider

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	2
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	6

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	42
Midsize Enterprise	13
Large Enterprise	49

Questions from the Community

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What do you like most about GitHub?

The control is the most valuable feature as developers can work on a single code.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for GitHub?

I was paying approximately one hundred dollars annually about a year ago. I am uncertain of the current cost, but GitHub without Copilot is free as far as I know. I am not paying anything for my Gi...

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What needs improvement with GitHub?

Security could make GitHub better. OWASP Top Ten security advisors could be integrated on GitHub, and it could provide checks and advice. That would be much better. Additionally, LLM integration on...

See all answers

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Product Reports

Contrast Security Assess

Download Contrast Security Assess product report

Download GitHub product report

Also Known As

Contrast Assess

No data available

Overview

Contrast Security is the world’s leading provider of security technology that enables software applications to protect themselves against cyberattacks, heralding the new era of self-protecting software. Contrast's patented deep security instrumentation is the breakthrough technology that enables highly accurate assessment and always-on protection of an entire application portfolio, without disruptive scanning or expensive security experts. Only Contrast has sensors that work actively inside applications to uncover vulnerabilities, prevent data breaches, and secure the entire enterprise from development, to operations, to production.

Contrast Security

GitHub is a web-based Git repository hosting service. It offers all of the distributed revision control and source code management (SCM) functionality of Git as well as adding its own features. Unlike Git, which is strictly a command-line tool, GitHub provides a Web-based graphical interface and desktop as well as mobile integration. It also provides access control and several collaboration features such as bug tracking, feature requests, task management, and wikis for every project.

Sample Customers

Williams-Sonoma, Autodesk, HUAWEI, Chromeriver, RingCentral, Demandware.

Dominion Enterprises, NASA, Braintree, SAP, CyberAgent

Contrast Security Assess vs. GitHub