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PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional vs Qualys Web Application Scanning comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 23, 2024
 

Categories and Ranking

PortSwigger Burp Suite Prof...
Ranking in Application Security Tools
8th
Ranking in Static Application Security Testing (SAST)
6th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
62
Ranking in other categories
Fuzz Testing Tools (1st)
Qualys Web Application Scan...
Ranking in Application Security Tools
13th
Ranking in Static Application Security Testing (SAST)
12th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
35
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of December 2024, in the Application Security Tools category, the mindshare of PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional is 1.8%, down from 2.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Qualys Web Application Scanning is 1.9%, down from 2.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Application Security Tools
 

Featured Reviews

Anton Krivonosov - PeerSpot reviewer
A special tool for penetration testers or security specialists to conduct security assessments
We use the solution for security assessments. It's a special tool for penetration testers or security specialists PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional is a standard tool in the security industry. It's a stable solution that has many features. You can download different plugins if you don't have…
SubhajitAich - PeerSpot reviewer
A stable solution that can be used for infrastructure vulnerability scanning and web application scanning
Qualys Web Application Scanning is very complex to use, and its graphical interface is not very user-friendly. Compared to other solutions like Tenable and Rapid7, you need to navigate a lot to get the actual results out of Qualys Web Application Scanning. If I have to search for one thing within the entire console, I have to look for it randomly. It's not very easy and very comfortable to find something. Overall, it's a very good solution, but it will be very good if the tool is more user-friendly.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The product has a good learning hub."
"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."
"The suite testing models are very good. It's very secure."
"The most valuable feature of PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional is the dashboard. It is very informative and you can receive all the information you need in one place. It's clear, well-defined, and organized. Anybody without any cybersecurity can use it."
"The intercepting feature is the most valuable."
"I have found the best features to be the performance and there are a lot of additional plugins available."
"I am impressed with the tool's detailed analysis for penetration testing. AppScan can give only visibility, but it can't do the PT part. But the PortSwigger Burp Application can do both, and it gives much more visibility on the PT rating."
"I have found this solution has more plugins than other competitors which is a benefit. You are able to attach different plugins to the security scan to add features. For example, you can check to see if there are any payment systems that exist on a server, or username and password brute force analysis."
"Qualys Web Application Scanning has multiple features like threat protection and container security scanning in one box."
"The product prevents possible vulnerabilities in our network."
"​This product is designed for easy scalability and can easily scale up ​without major challenges."
"Key features include: Cloud-based, so the installation is not so tedious. Easily deployed. Highly scalable. Comprehensive reporting."
"It is a good product for website penetration testing to detect vulnerabilities."
"Qualys WAS' most valuable features are the navigation flow of the UI and the option for a different layer of security (identification and operation through email and mobile)."
"It is a very stable solution."
"With our vulnerabilities under control, it's putting our services in compliance and minimizing our risk for exposure."
 

Cons

"There needs to be better documentation provided. Currently, we need to buy books, or we need to review online some use cases from other professionals who have been using the solution to find out their experience. It is not easy to find out how to properly do a security assessment."
"The solution doesn't offer very good scalability."
"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."
"The price could be better. The rest is fine."
"You can have many false positives in Burp Suite. It depends on the scale of the penetration testing."
"The initial setup is a bit complex."
"It would be good if the solution could give us more details about what exactly is defective."
"Integration is a big problem."
"In certain cases, this product does have false positives, which the company should work on."
"Sometimes the response time is low because the handshake fails, and then you have to re-login and start again."
"They should try to include business logic vulnerabilities in the scanner testing."
"The solution needs to adjust its pricing. They should make it more affordable."
"The scanner reports a lot of false positives, which is something that needs to be improved."
"There should be better visibility into the application."
"We have many websites. We don't force scanning on all of them at once because it's taking some time."
"The reporting contains too many false positives."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional is an expensive solution."
"Pricing is not very high. It was around $200."
"There are multiple versions available of PortSwigger Burp Suite, such as enterprise, commercial, professional, and beginners."
"Our licensing cost is approximately $400 USD per year."
"The pricing of the solution is cost-effective and is best suited for small and medium-sized businesses."
"I rate the pricing a four out of ten."
"Burp Suite is affordable."
"The solution is reasonably priced."
"We are on an annual license for the solution and the pricing could be more affordable."
"Qualys has an IT-based licensing based on a yearly license, which is a good way of handling it. However, in some cases, when we do the PCI scanning, the host will not like the scanning and we lose the IT license. So, this could be improved."
"The cost is $30,000 USD for one year to cover WAS (Web Application Security) and the VM (Virtual Machine) security in a company with 200 employees."
"I rate the software’s pricing a six out of ten."
"From my perspective, it is a budget-friendly option."
"We normally purchase an annual license."
"The product is expensive, at least initially, in comparison to other products in this category."
"The product has a very good licensing model."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Government
11%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
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 ...
What do you like most about PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional?
The solution helped us discover vulnerabilities in our applications.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional?
The pricing for Burp Suite Professional is not very high, however, it could be more flexible for clients.
What do you like most about Qualys Web Application Scanning?
The vulnerability management feature is a strong one. And also the patch management feature.
What needs improvement with Qualys Web Application Scanning?
One area for improvement is the user interface. The new UI, which was recently upgraded, feels more complex and less user-friendly than the old version. However, as we continue to use it, we antici...
 

Also Known As

Burp
Qualys WAS
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Google, Amazon, NASA, FedEx, P&G, Salesforce
BskyB, Cartagena, ClearPoint Learning Systems, Connect Group, du, Fortrex Technologies, HBOR, HDI, Highlights for Children, The Lithuanian State Enterprise Centre of Registers, City of Miami Beach, Microsoft, MidlandHR, MSCI Inc., Northern Arizona University, Ofgem, Olympus Europa, PhoneFactor, RTL Nederland, ThousandEyes, VGZ Organisatie B.V.
Find out what your peers are saying about PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional vs. Qualys Web Application Scanning and other solutions. Updated: December 2024.
824,053 professionals have used our research since 2012.