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Acunetix vs Contrast Security Assess comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 8, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
6.8
Acunetix users report over 300% ROI, with enhanced security, time savings, and reduced manual testing for application vulnerability identification.
Sentiment score
8.0
Contrast Security Assess boosts ROI by improving code quality, reducing remediation time, and optimizing development and security efficiency.
It saves a significant amount of time by covering attack surfaces.
Information Security Engineer at Tübitak Bilgem
I have seen a return on investment, as Acunetix helps reduce the man-days and effort needed for scanning bulk applications through automated assessments.
Senior Engineer - Penetration Tester at a government with 10,001+ employees
Acunetix has helped reduce the time spent on manual security reviews and vulnerability identification, catching potential issues early in the deployment and development cycle.
full stack developer at a consultancy with 1-10 employees
In the past, my company employed five security engineers, but with Contrast Security Assess, we only have two people.
DevSecOps Engineer at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.7
Acunetix customer support is praised for responsiveness and efficiency, despite occasional delays and varying reseller interactions.
Sentiment score
9.2
Contrast Security support is responsive and helpful, with effective issue escalation, but customization response times could improve.
For high-severity issues, they reach out within two to three hours, and for critical issues, a response is received within 15 minutes.
Lead Cybersecurity at TBO
The technical support from Invicti is very good and fast.
Information Security Engineer at Tübitak Bilgem
Support staff not being familiar with the problem.
Senior Engineer - Penetration Tester at a government with 10,001+ employees
Contrast Security's customer support is very active and overall incredible.
DevSecOps Engineer at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.0
Acunetix is scalable, adaptable to business growth, though desktop version limitations and licensing may affect its flexibility.
Sentiment score
8.7
Contrast Security Assess is flexible, scalable, and integrates well, facilitating increased adoption despite challenges for developers transitioning from legacy systems.
Acunetix can handle increasing workloads and more applications easily.
Senior Engineer - Penetration Tester at a government with 10,001+ employees
Acunetix scales effectively for growing web application security testing needs.
full stack developer at a consultancy with 1-10 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.2
Acunetix is highly praised for its stability, with minimal issues, effective tech support, and consistent performance.
Sentiment score
8.6
Contrast Security Assess is stable and efficient, with minor support challenges, running smoothly in preproduction environments with configuration improvements.
Contrast Security Assess is genuinely more accurate than most tools I have worked with because it uses instrumentation from inside the application.
DevSecOps Engineer at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Room For Improvement

Customers seek improved API testing, mobile scanning, pricing, integrations, collaboration features, faster scans, and better user support in Acunetix.
Contrast Security needs better documentation, broader technology support, improved pricing, and enhanced technical support for various user needs.
The main concern is related to false positives; Acunetix needs to work on identifying valid and invalid findings.
Lead Cybersecurity at TBO
I could supply it with maybe a Swagger file or a JSON file, and Acunetix would pick it up, scan all the endpoints according to the OWASP Top Ten, and give me remediation and actionable remediation reports.
Team Lead, Application Security at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
Acunetix should have better integration with newer tools such as GitHub and Azure DevOps.
CEO at Xcelliti
I would love to see more customizable, out-of-the-box reporting that speaks to both technical and non-technical people without extra configuration.
DevSecOps Engineer at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Setup Cost

Acunetix pricing is high and complex, based on domains and targets, with mixed opinions on transparency and flexibility.
Contrast Security Assess offers manageable pricing based on applications, beneficial for organizations prioritizing application coverage over server resources.
The pricing cost is affordable for small and mid-sized organizations, and when compared to Checkmarx, it is significantly affordable, as Checkmarx is quite expensive.
Lead Cybersecurity at TBO
We secured a special licensing model for penetration testing companies, which is cost-effective.
Information Security Engineer at Tübitak Bilgem
The pricing of Acunetix is pretty expensive and could be improved.
Senior Business Development Manager at Intouch World
The annual licensing for Contrast Security Assess costs about $20,000 to $100,000 per year, and per application, it costs about $5,000 to $15,000 per year.
DevSecOps Engineer at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Valuable Features

Acunetix offers fast, automated web vulnerability detection with user-friendly management, centralized reporting, and efficient multi-domain handling.
Contrast Security Assess offers real-time vulnerability detection, CI/CD integration, and proactive library management for efficient development and enhanced security.
Its most valuable role is in enhancing security by identifying potential vulnerabilities efficiently.
Senior Business Development Manager at Intouch World
The solution is excellent at detecting SQL injection and cross-site scripting vulnerabilities.
CEO at Xcelliti
The best feature Acunetix offers is the centralized dashboard and the quality of reports it generates, which includes various options for selecting reports and developer options for directly sharing the reports with developers.
Senior Engineer - Penetration Tester at a government with 10,001+ employees
The real-time detection feature of Contrast Security Assess helps us very well compared to traditional SAST tools. Traditional tools scan from the outside and guess where problems might be. Contrast Security Assess works from the inside because it is embedded into the application.
DevSecOps Engineer at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Categories and Ranking

Acunetix
Ranking in Application Security Tools
8th
Ranking in Static Application Security Testing (SAST)
5th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
38
Ranking in other categories
Vulnerability Management (21st), DevSecOps (5th)
Contrast Security Assess
Ranking in Application Security Tools
31st
Ranking in Static Application Security Testing (SAST)
26th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
12
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Static Application Security Testing (SAST) category, the mindshare of Acunetix is 2.7%, down from 3.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Contrast Security Assess is 1.3%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Static Application Security Testing (SAST) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Acunetix2.7%
Contrast Security Assess1.3%
Other96.0%
Static Application Security Testing (SAST)
 

Featured Reviews

Rahul Kumar - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Engineer - Penetration Tester at a government with 10,001+ employees
Identifies vulnerabilities across bulk web applications but needs better support and cleaner reports
The best feature Acunetix offers is the centralized dashboard and the quality of reports it generates, which includes various options for selecting reports and developer options for directly sharing the reports with developers. The centralized dashboard of Acunetix gives visibility into the security aspects of mass applications; for instance, with more than 200 applications, it provides a valuable overview of findings and necessary fixes, along with a high-level summary that helps us achieve compliance through monthly and sometimes weekly scanning. In terms of reporting, Acunetix is excellent because it can generate different types of reports, such as an executive summary report, detailed reports, and developer reports that can be shared directly with developers. Acunetix positively impacts my organization by helping identify outdated libraries and applications, including legacy applications vulnerable to old attacks based on OWASP Top 10, thus aiding in compliance checks for PCI DSS and OWASP. Acunetix provides a centralized report with compliance-related aspects and a vulnerability timeline, effectively helping reduce vulnerabilities and save time.
Eucharia Okafor - PeerSpot reviewer
DevSecOps Engineer at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
Continuous in-app security has transformed our development workflow and has reduced manual checks
Contrast Security Assess changes how the team thinks about security. Instead of us waiting for a security audit at the end of any sprint, vulnerabilities surface as developers are writing and testing code. That shift is significant because fixing a bug in development costs more than fixing it later. It captures everything right there and remediates it because it catches vulnerability and remediates immediately while the application is running. It improves our collaboration between development and security teams, as developers get clear actionable findings immediately. We get continuous visibility into our application risk posture. Ultimately, it helps us to shift fast and save money, which is usually a trade-off, but Contrast Security Assess makes both possible. The feature that stands out most to me in Contrast Security Assess is the ability to capture vulnerability while the application is running. Another standout feature is the real-time detection that finds vulnerabilities as code runs. It has fewer false positives and works continuously in the application; you install it and it is there. It captures issues during development quickly and is easily integrated with a CI/CD pipeline, especially if you are using GitLab or GitHub. The real-time detection feature of Contrast Security Assess helps us very well compared to traditional SAST tools. Traditional tools scan from the outside and guess where problems might be. Contrast Security Assess works from the inside because it is embedded into the application. The agent lives inside the running application, allowing it to see exactly what is happening in real-time. This means we are getting accurate alerts instead of a long list of potential issues that require manual investigation. When it comes to the CI/CD pipeline, Contrast Security Assess really shines for our daily work, as it plugs directly into tools like Jenkins, GitHub, or Azure DevOps. When a developer commits code and triggers a build, Contrast Security Assess is already testing it in the background. If there is any vulnerability, the pipeline automatically flags or stops the application before bad code reaches production. This means security becomes everyone's responsibility, not just the security team's, and it gives us real-time, accurate security that fits into how our team already works.
report
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900,747 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Construction Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business18
Midsize Enterprise7
Large Enterprise19
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business2
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise7
 

Questions from the Community

What is your primary use case for Acunetix Vulnerability Scanner?
In a typical enterprise environment, Acunetix is mainly used for visibility, detection, and investigation across network traffic. The main use cases usually fall into a few core areas, with primary...
What advice do you have for others considering Acunetix Vulnerability Scanner?
I advise that Acunetix is the best option. Invest time in proper initial configuration and scope definitions. The tool is powerful, but its effectiveness depends heavily on how the authenticated ar...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Acunetix?
Everything is perfect and good, including the pricing and all related aspects.
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Also Known As

AcuSensor
Contrast Assess
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Joomla!, Digicure, Team Random, Credit Suisse, Samsung, Air New Zealand
Williams-Sonoma, Autodesk, HUAWEI, Chromeriver, RingCentral, Demandware.
Find out what your peers are saying about Acunetix vs. Contrast Security Assess and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
900,747 professionals have used our research since 2012.