GitLab vs OWASP Zap comparison

GitLab and OWASP are both solutions in the Static Application Security Testing (SAST) category. GitLab is ranked #7 with an average rating of 8.3, while OWASP is ranked #11 with an average rating of 8.0. GitLab holds a 2.3% mindshare in SAST, compared to OWASP’s 4.5% mindshare. Additionally, 97% of GitLab users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 88% of OWASP users who would recommend it.

GitLab

Read 86 GitLab reviews

18,203 Views
2,912 Comparison Views

97% willing to recommend

OWASP Zap

Read 41 OWASP Zap reviews

7,876 Views
7,167 Comparison Views

88% willing to recommend

GitLab

OWASP Zap

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 27, 2025

OWASP Zap and GitLab compete in security testing and comprehensive DevOps solutions. GitLab has the upper hand with its extensive integrations, despite OWASP Zap's cost-effectiveness.

Features: OWASP Zap offers powerful security testing tools, open-source nature, and detailed reporting, while GitLab provides comprehensive DevOps capabilities, CI/CD pipelines, and a user-friendly interface.

Room for Improvement: OWASP Zap could enhance support and UI complexity, while GitLab can improve feature diversity and documentation for beginners.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: GitLab provides seamless deployment and reliable commercial support, whereas OWASP Zap is easy to set up but relies on community support.

Pricing and ROI: OWASP Zap is cost-effective due to its open-source nature, offering excellent ROI for security-focused businesses. GitLab has higher upfront costs, but its integrated platform justifies long-term ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed GitLab vs. OWASP Zap Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

GitLab vs. OWASP Zap

September 2025

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Helped 868,706 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

GitLab

Ranking in Static Application Security Testing (SAST)

7th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Security Tools (11th), Build Automation (1st), Release Automation (2nd), Rapid Application Development Software (11th), Software Composition Analysis (SCA) (5th), Enterprise Agile Planning Tools (2nd), Fuzz Testing Tools (3rd), DevSecOps (1st)

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

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Static Application Security Testing (SAST) category, the mindshare of GitLab is 2.3%, down from 2.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of OWASP Zap is 4.5%, up from 4.4% 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 (%)
GitLab	2.3%
OWASP Zap	4.5%
Other	93.2%

Static Application Security Testing (SAST)

Featured Reviews

Rohit Kesharwani

Manager, Engineering at 7-Eleven

Improved agility and time to market with CI/CD enhancements

The CI/CD pipelines in GitLab are highly valuable. Another important feature is the single source of repository, allowing efficient repository management and source code management. GitLab provides manageability by allowing us to manage source code effectively through separate repositories. Additionally, GitLab enables the creation of individual CI/CD pipelines for each repository, making software more agile. By integrating GitLab as a DevOps platform, we have enhanced agility, improved our time to market, and different teams can work collaboratively on various projects.

Read full review

Amit Beniwal

Project Manager at Al Hassan LLC

Simplifies vulnerability discovery and has high quality support

There are areas for improvement with OWASP Zap, particularly in the alignment of vulnerabilities concerning CVSS scores. Sometimes, a vulnerability initially categorized as high severity may be reduced to medium or low over time after security patches are applied. This alignment with the present severity score and CVSS score could be improved.

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

"A user friendly solution."

"The tool helps to integrate CI/CD pipeline deployments. It is very easy to learn. Its security model is good."

"The solution's most valuable features are pipelines."

"CI/CD is valuable for me."

"Key features allow creation of well-presented Wiki that includes ideas, development, and domains."

"We're only using the basic features of GitLab and haven't used any advanced features. The solution works fine, so that's what we like about GitLab. We're party using GitHub and GitLab. We have a GitHub server, while we use GitLab locally or only within our team, and it works okay. We don't have any significant problems with the solution. We also found the straightforward setup, stability, and scalability of GitLab valuable."

"The CI/CD pipeline with Helm has significantly improved deployment speed and efficiency."

"The dashboard and interface make it easy to use."

More GitLab pros

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

"Simple and easy to learn and master."

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

"The ZAP scan and code crawler are valuable features."

"OWASP Zap is a good tool, one of my favorites for a long time, and I would recommend it."

"Automatic updates and pull request analysis."

"Simple to use, good user interface."

"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, it's very difficult."

More OWASP Zap pros

Cons

"Their RBAC is role-based access, which is fine but not very good."

"In the next release, I would like to see GitLab expand its integration capabilities to include platforms like DigitalOcean, which developers widely use for cloud infrastructure. Enhancing CI/CD automation features specifically tailored for DigitalOcean would be beneficial."

"The integration could be slightly better."

"It is a little complex to set up the pipelines within the solution."

"GitLab can improve by integrating with more tools, such as servers with Docker."

"It could have more security integrations and the ability to check the vulnerability of the code. I don't think it is a responsibility of Gitlab, but it would be nice to have more options to integrate with."

"Based on what I know so far, its integration with Kubernetes is not so good. We have to develop many things to make it work. We have to acquire third-party components to work with Kubernetes."

"I have encountered issues with the deployment of CI/CD pipelines, especially dealing with variable environments."

More GitLab cons

"If there was an easier to understand exactly what has been checked and what has not been checked, it would make this solution better. We have to trust that it has checked all known vulnerabilities but it's a bit hard to see after the scanning."

"I'd like to see a kind of feature where we can just track what our last vulnerability was and how it has improved or not. More reports that can have some kind of base-lining, I think that would be a good feature too. I'm not sure whether it can be achieved and implement but I think that would really help."

"Too many false positives; test reports could be improved."

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

"They stopped their support for a short period. They've recently started to come back again. In the early days, support was much better."

"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."

"It doesn't run on absolutely every operating system."

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

More OWASP Zap cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"GitLab is an open-source solution."

"I'm not aware of the licensing costs because those were covered by the customer."

"This product is not very expensive but the price can be better."

"The open-source version is very good and the commercial version is reasonably priced."

"The solution's pricing is acceptable."

"The initial setup cost is excellent and you can add the premium features later."

"I think that we pay approximately $100 USD per month."

"The solution is free."

More GitLab pricing and cost advice

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

"OWASP Zap is free to use."

"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."

"This solution is open source and free."

"The tool is open-source."

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

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

"This is an open-source solution and can be used free of charge."

More OWASP Zap pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

14%

Computer Software Company

13%

Government

11%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Computer Software Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

University

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	35
Midsize Enterprise	9
Large Enterprise	42

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	10
Midsize Enterprise	11
Large Enterprise	21

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about GitLab?

I find the features and version control history to be most valuable for our development workflow. These aspects provide us with a clear view of changes and help us manage requests efficiently.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for GitLab?

We are currently using general GitLab, not GitLab Premium.

See all answers

What needs improvement with GitLab?

GitLab needs to improve the CI/CD functionality because it is not compatible with Jenkins and other tools, as it is not that efficient. Security-wise, we have security features enabled in GitLab fo...

See all answers

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 ...

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

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Compared 38% of the time

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Compared 5% of the time

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Compared 5% of the time

SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) vs GitLab

Compared 3% of the time

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Compared 18% of the time

Acunetix vs OWASP Zap

Compared 15% of the time

Checkmarx One vs OWASP Zap

Compared 11% of the time

Qualys Web Application Scanning vs OWASP Zap

Compared 9% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

GitLab

September 2025

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Buyer's Guide

OWASP Zap

September 2025

Download OWASP Zap product report

Also Known As

Fuzzit

No data available

Overview

GitLab offers a secure and user-friendly platform for CI/CD pipeline management, code repository control, and collaboration, enhancing development speed and efficiency. It facilitates automation with extensive customization and tool integration, ideal for DevOps processes.

GitLab supports source code management, version control, and collaborative development. It's frequently used in CI/CD processes to automate builds and deployments while integrating DevOps practices. GitLab allows companies to manage repositories, automate pipelines, conduct code reviews, and maintain development lifecycles. The platform supports infrastructure and configuration management, enabling efficient code collaboration, deployment automation, and comprehensive repository handling. Many organizations commit and deploy developed code using GitLab's capabilities.

What are GitLab's most valuable features?

CI/CD Pipeline Management: Streamlines development through automated testing and deployment.
User-Friendly Interface: Ensures ease of collaboration and task automation.
Code Merging and Branching: Facilitates smooth code integration and version control.
Security Platform: Provides strong security features for safe development.
Tool Integration: Enhances functionality with diverse tool integration.

What benefits should users evaluate?

Development Speed: Accelerates processes through automation.
Collaboration Ease: Simplifies team interactions and workflow.
Customization Options: Offers extensive personalization for specific needs.
Comprehensive Documentation: Provides detailed guidance for users.
Secure Platform: Maintains integrity with robust security features.

In specific industries, GitLab serves as a backbone for source code management and CI/CD implementation. Companies leverage its capabilities for infrastructure management and deployment automation, thus streamlining project delivery timelines. Its ability to handle configuration management and code repositories effectively aids in maintaining development lifecycles, making it a preferred choice for organizations committed to enhancing their DevOps practices.

GitLab

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

Sample Customers

1. NASA 2. IBM 3. Sony 4. Alibaba 5. CERN 6. Siemens 7. Volkswagen 8. ING 9. Ticketmaster 10. SpaceX 11. Adobe 12. Intuit 13. Autodesk 14. Rakuten 15. Unity Technologies 16. Pandora 17. Electronic Arts 18. Nordstrom 19. Verizon 20. Comcast 21. Philips 22. Deutsche Telekom 23. Orange 24. Fujitsu 25. Ericsson 26. Nokia 27. General Electric 28. Cisco 29. Accenture 30. Deloitte 31. PwC 32. KPMG

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

Buyer's Guide

GitLab vs. OWASP Zap

September 2025

Free Report: GitLab vs. OWASP Zap

Find out what your peers are saying about GitLab vs. OWASP Zap and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.

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