Contrast Security Assess vs Virsec Security Platform comparison

Contrast Security and Virsec Systems are both solutions in the Application Security Tools category. Contrast Security is ranked #28 with an average rating of 8.7, while Virsec Systems is ranked #36 with an average rating of 7.0. Contrast Security holds a 0.5% mindshare in AS, compared to Virsec Systems’s 0.1% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Contrast Security users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Virsec Systems users who would recommend it.

Contrast Security Assess

Read 11 Contrast Security Assess reviews

906 Views
587 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Virsec Security Platform

Read 1 Virsec Security Platform review

228 Views
151 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Contrast Security Assess

Virsec Security Platform

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Contrast Security Assess and Virsec Security Platform based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Sonar, Veracode, Checkmarx and others in Application Security Tools.

To learn more, read our detailed Application Security Tools Report (Updated: December 2024).

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Application Security Tools

December 2024

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Helped 831,158 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

Contrast Security Assess

Ranking in Application Security Tools

28th

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Static Application Security Testing (SAST) (24th)

Virsec Security Platform

Ranking in Application Security Tools

36th

Average Rating

7.0

Reviews Sentiment

5.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) (56th), Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP) (27th)

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2025, in the Application Security Tools category, the mindshare of Contrast Security Assess is 0.5%, down from 0.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Virsec Security Platform is 0.1%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Security Tools

Featured Reviews

ToddMcAlister

Lead Application and Data Security Engineer at a insurance company with 5,001-10,000 employees

It has an excellent API interface to pull APIs.

Assess has brought our development time down because it helps create code the first time. Instead of going through the Jenkins process to build an application, they can see right off the bat that if there are errors in the code and fix them before it even goes to build.

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KevinMcCarthy

Security Manager at Klearnow

Helps with Zero-day protection

We use the solution for Zero-day protection. The solution stops any kind of remote code execution. The tool's dashboard needs to load since it is not responsive and takes time to load. I have been using the product for a year. I would rate the tool's stability a six out of ten. I would…

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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

"The accuracy of the solution in identifying vulnerabilities is better than any other product we've used, far and away. In our internal comparisons among different tools, Contrast consistently finds more impactful vulnerabilities, and also identifies vulnerabilities that are nearly guaranteed to be there, meaning that the chance of false positives is very low."

"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."

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

"We use the Contrast OSS feature that allows us to look at third-party, open-source software libraries, because it has a cool interface where you can look at all the different libraries. It has some really cool additional features where it gives us how many instances in which something has been used... It tells us it has been used 10 times out of 20 workloads, for example. Then we know for sure that OSS is being used."

"The most valuable feature is the continuous monitoring aspect: the fact that we don't have to wait for scans to complete for the tool to identify vulnerabilities. They're automatically identified through developers' business-as-usual processes."

"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."

More Contrast Security Assess pros

"We use the solution for Zero-day protection."

Cons

"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."

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

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

"I think there was activity underway to support the centralized configuration control. There are ways to do it, but I think they were productizing more of that."

"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."

"To instrument an agent, it has to be running on a type of application technology that the agent recognizes and understands. It's excellent when it works. If we're using an application that is using an unsupported technology, then we can't instrument it at all. We do use PHP and Contrast presently doesn't support that, although it's on their roadmap. My primary hurdle is that it doesn't support all of the technologies that we use."

"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."

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

More Contrast Security Assess cons

"The tool's dashboard needs to load since it is not responsive and takes time to load."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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 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."

"The solution is expensive."

"I would rate the solution's pricing an eight out of ten."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

20%

Manufacturing Company

13%

Computer Software Company

11%

Government

Healthcare Company

34%

Manufacturing Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Retailer

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Contrast Security Assess?

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

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Contrast Security Assess?

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

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What needs improvement with Contrast Security Assess?

Technical support for the solution should be faster. We have to further analyze what kind of CVEs are in the reported libraries and what part of the code is affected. That analysis can be added to ...

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Contrast Security Assess vs Virsec Security Platform: What are the advantages and disadvantages of each?

Hi Julia - I've been with Virsec as the Sr. Director, Product Marketing for the last three quarters and I have never seen a competitive opportunity arise versus Contrast. Perhaps the confusion lies...

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What do you like most about Virsec Security Platform?

We use the solution for Zero-day protection.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Virsec Security Platform?

I would rate the solution's pricing an eight out of ten.

See all answers

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OWASP Zap vs Contrast Security Assess

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Contrast Security Assess

January 2025

Download Contrast Security Assess product report

Buyer's Guide

Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP)

January 2025

Download Virsec Security Platform product report

Also Known As

Contrast Assess

Virsec

Learn More

Contrast Security

Virsec Systems

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.

Virsec Security Platform (VSP) is an enterprise cybersecurity solution that continuously protects application, web and host workloads against advanced cyber threats and neutralizes zero-day exploits with zero dwell time (milliseconds). The Virsec Security Platform (VSP) aligns with Zero Trust Architectural approaches and presents a portfolio of compensating security controls that automate the enforcement of runtime execution of authorized processes, scripts, libraries and dependencies that harden Windows and Linux Host OS (Operating System) server, application, and web workloads at runtime.

Sample Customers

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

Broadcom, Allstate, Department of Homeland Security

Buyer's Guide

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December 2024

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