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OWASP Zap vs PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional comparison

OWASP and PortSwigger are both solutions in the Static Application Security Testing (SAST) category. OWASP is ranked #11 with an average rating of 8.0, while PortSwigger is ranked #6 with an average rating of 8.7. OWASP holds a 4.6% mindshare in SAST, compared to PortSwigger’s 2.0% mindshare. Additionally, 88% of OWASP users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 98% of PortSwigger users who would recommend it.
OWASP Zap
Read 41 OWASP Zap reviews
  • 9,644 Views
  • 8,776 Comparison Views
88% willing to recommend
PortSwigger Burp Suite Prof...
Read 64 PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional reviews
  • 4,847 Views
  • 3,102 Comparison Views
98% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 27, 2025

PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional and OWASP Zap compete in the web application security testing category. Burp Suite holds the upper hand due to its automated scanning and customization capabilities, while OWASP Zap is favored for cost-free usage.

Features: PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional offers features like Proxy, Repeater, and Extender, supported by an extensive BApp store for additional modules. The Intruder provides customizable payloads, making it stand out for thorough security assessments. OWASP Zap is preferred for its spidering, proxies, and automated scanning, complemented by a user-friendly interface.

Room for Improvement: Burp Suite could improve by reducing false positives and enhancing scanning for RESTful services, with better documentation suggested for new users. OWASP Zap users see room for growth in API security, report customization, and expanding vulnerability scanning capabilities.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Both tools offer strong deployment options, mainly on-premises, with some cloud capabilities. Burp Suite provides comprehensive technical support and resources like webinars. OWASP Zap has extensive community support but could improve response time and availability.

Pricing and ROI: Burp Suite is noted for offering significant ROI despite higher initial licensing fees, with community versions and various licensing options available. Conversely, OWASP Zap is completely free, appealing to early-stage companies and cost-conscious users, though it requires more manual intervention for advanced needs.

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To learn more, read our detailed OWASP Zap vs. PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional Report (Updated: July 2025).
Buyer's Guide
OWASP Zap vs. PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional
July 2025
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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

OWASP Zap
Ranking in Static Application Security Testing (SAST)
11th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
41
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
PortSwigger Burp Suite Prof...
Ranking in Static Application Security Testing (SAST)
6th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
64
Ranking in other categories
Application Security Tools (11th), Fuzz Testing Tools (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Static Application Security Testing (SAST) category, the mindshare of OWASP Zap is 4.6%, down from 4.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional is 2.0%, up from 2.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Static Application Security Testing (SAST)
 

Featured Reviews

Amit Beniwal - PeerSpot reviewer
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
Anuradha.Kapoor Kapoor - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers efficient scanning of entire websites but presence of false positive bugs, leading to time-consuming efforts in distinguishing real bugs from false alarms
We have found that so many times, false positive bugs are there, and then we spend a lot of time basically separating them from real bugs. So that's the reason we are looking for some other tool. So we were in discussion with Acunetix. Therefore, the false positive rate is, like, something that we would like to improve. What we are looking for is if this false positive rate goes down because we were OWASP Zap tool users, which was free anyway. But there were a lot of false positives there, and we used to spend a lot of time, like, for security reasons, reproducing those bugs for the development team to fix it. So then we thought, okay, why not we go with the tool? Even if it is not very expensive. But still, every year, we have to renew the license. And we got this tool. Again, we found that in this tool also, even if it is less, there are still a lot of false positive bugs out there. So we again have to spend so much time. So we hired a security tester, who was basically using Acunetix in his previous company for almost three years, and then you said that in that scanning is very slow. The scanning is also slow. Like, sometimes the site scan takes eight hours, six to eight hours. Yeah. And whereas in Acunetix, it took three to four hours. And plus, there are no false positives. I'm not saying none but there's very little. But here, the rate sometimes is very high. These are the two features I think we would like to improve further.
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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 solution has tightened our security."
"The stability of the solution is very good."
"The OWASP's tool is free of cost, which gives it a great advantage, especially for smaller companies to make use of the tool."
"The product discovers more vulnerabilities compared to other tools."
"The product helps users to scan and fix vulnerabilities in the pipeline."
"They offer free access to some other tools."
"The vulnerabilities that it finds, because the primary goal is to secure applications and websites."
"We use the solution for security testing."
More OWASP Zap pros
"The solution helped us discover vulnerabilities in our applications."
"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."
"I rate PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional ten points out of ten."
"The initial setup is simple."
"It is useful for scanning and tracing activities."
"The solution has a limited range of functions, which is good for small companies. This is because, in small companies, websites are less complex. They also have single services which makes the solution good enough for them. However, the most advantageous aspect of the solution is its affordable price."
"BurpSuite helps us to identify and fix silly mistakes that are sometimes introduced by our developers in their coding."
"I have found the best features to be the performance and there are a lot of additional plugins available."
More PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional pros
 

Cons

"The automated vulnerability assessments that the application performs needs to be simplified as well as diversified."
"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."
"There are areas for improvement with OWASP Zap, particularly in the alignment of vulnerabilities concerning CVSS scores."
"It would be ideal if I could try some pre-built deployment scenarios so that I don't have to worry about whether the configuration sector team is doing it right or wrong. That would be very helpful."
"OWASP Zap needs to extend to mobile application testing."
"There's very little documentation that comes with OWASP Zap."
"The work that it does in the limited scope is good, but the scope is very limited in terms of the scanning features. The number of things it tests or finds is limited. They need to make it a more of a mainstream tool that people can use, and they can even think about having it on a proprietary basis. They need to increase the coverage of the scan and the results that it finds. That has always been Zap's limitation. Zap is a very good tool for a beginner, but once you start moving up the ladder where you want further details and you want your scan to show more in-depth results, Zap falls short because its coverage falls short. It does not have the capacity to do more."
More OWASP Zap cons
"Mitigating the issues and low confluence issues needs some improvement. Implementing demand with the ChatGPT under the web solution is an additional feature I would like to see in the next release."
"Integration is a big problem."
"The Burp Collaborator needs improvement. There also needs to be improved integration."
"There is a lot to this product, and it would be good if when you purchase the tool, they can provide us with a more extensive user manual."
"If your application uses multi-factor authentication, registration management cannot be automated."
"The price could be better. The rest is fine."
"The solution lacks sufficient stability."
"The biggest improvement that I would like to see from PortSwigger that today many people see as an issue in their testing. There might be a feature which might be desired."
More PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional cons
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is open source, and we can scan freely."
"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 highly recommended as it is an open source tool."
"The tool is open-source."
"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."
"OWASP Zap is free to use."
"It's free and open, currently under the Apache 2 license. If ZAP does what you need it to do, selling a free solution is a very easy."
More OWASP Zap pricing and cost advice
"There is no setup cost and the cost of licensing is affordable."
"Burp Suite is affordable."
"At $400 or $500 per license paid annually, it is a very cheap tool."
"PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional is expensive compared to other tools."
"We pay a yearly licensing fee for the solution, which is neither cheap nor expensive."
"There are multiple versions available of PortSwigger Burp Suite, such as enterprise, commercial, professional, and beginners."
"It has a yearly license. I am satisfied with its price."
"Pricing is not very high. It was around $200."
More PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional pricing and cost advice
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Answers from the Community

reviewer1487928 - PeerSpot reviewer
Nov 17, 2021
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
AK
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.
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reviewer1526550 - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
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See all 3 answers
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
8%
University
7%
Computer Software Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Government
11%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

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
What do you like most about PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional?
The solution helped us discover vulnerabilities in our applications.
See all answers
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.
See all answers
What needs improvement with PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional?
The only potential improvement would be adding Postman integration specifically for APIs.
See all answers
 

Comparisons

SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) vs OWASP Zap Logo
SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) vs OWASP Zap
Compared 19% of the time
Acunetix vs OWASP Zap Logo
Acunetix vs OWASP Zap
Compared 15% of the time
Checkmarx One vs OWASP Zap Logo
Checkmarx One vs OWASP Zap
Compared 11% of the time
Qualys Web Application Scanning vs OWASP Zap Logo
Qualys Web Application Scanning vs OWASP Zap
Compared 9% of the time
OpenText Dynamic Application Security Testing vs OWASP Zap Logo
OpenText Dynamic Application Security Testing vs OWASP Zap
Compared 5% of the time
More OWASP Zap Competitors
Acunetix vs PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional Logo
Acunetix vs PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional
Compared 17% of the time
OpenText Dynamic Application Security Testing vs PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional Logo
OpenText Dynamic Application Security Testing vs PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional
Compared 13% of the time
SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) vs PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional Logo
SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) vs PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional
Compared 8% of the time
HCL AppScan vs PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional Logo
HCL AppScan vs PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional
Compared 6% of the time
Nucleus vs PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional Logo
Nucleus vs PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional
Compared 6% of the time
More PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional Competitors
 

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide
OWASP Zap
July 2025
OWASP Zap reportDownload OWASP Zap product report
Buyer's Guide
PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional
July 2025
PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional reportDownload PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional product 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

Burp Suite Professional, by PortSwigger, is the world’s leading toolkit for web security testing. Over 52,000 users worldwide, across all industries and organization sizes, trust Burp Suite Professional to find more vulnerabilities, faster. With expertly-engineered manual and automated tooling, you're able to test smarter - not harder.

PortSwigger is the web security company that is enabling the world to secure the web. Over 50,000 security engineers rely on our software and expertise to secure their world.

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
Buyer's Guide
OWASP Zap vs. PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional
July 2025
Free Report: OWASP Zap vs. PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional
Find out what your peers are saying about OWASP Zap vs. PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
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