Acunetix vs Fortify Application Defender comparison

Invicti and OpenText are both solutions in the Application Security Tools category. Invicti is ranked #11 with an average rating of 8.5, while OpenText is ranked #24 with an average rating of 8.0. Invicti holds a 2.1% mindshare in AS, compared to OpenText’s 1.2% mindshare. Additionally, 88% of Invicti users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 81% of OpenText users who would recommend it.

Acunetix

Read 38 Acunetix reviews

6,442 Views
3,028 Comparison Views

88% willing to recommend

Fortify Application Defender

Read 11 Fortify Application Defender reviews

1,527 Views
1,267 Comparison Views

81% willing to recommend

Acunetix

Fortify Application Defender

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 8, 2024

Acunetix and Fortify Application Defender are widely used in the application security sector. User feedback highlights Acunetix for its ease of use and direct value, while Fortify Application Defender stands out with comprehensive features suitable for those who can maximize its capabilities.

Features: Acunetix is recognized for precise scanning, detailed reporting, and actionable insights into vulnerabilities. It provides straightforward tools for quick resolutions. Fortify Application Defender is noted for its robust integration, extensive application protection, and broad feature set catering to complex environments.

Room for Improvement: Acunetix users recommend enhancing customization options and increasing adaptability to meet specialized needs. Fortify Application Defender users see a need for a more streamlined update mechanism and improved user experience during updates. Both tools identify areas that could benefit from further refinement.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Acunetix receives commendation for quick setup and responsive customer service, crucial for immediate protection. Although Fortify Application Defender is effective after deployment, it requires detailed setup but maintains efficient customer support, satisfying users with comprehensive service.

Pricing and ROI: Acunetix provides competitive pricing that aligns with a fast return on investment, beneficial for cost-conscious buyers. Fortify Application Defender demands a higher initial investment but is valued for its long-term impact on security posture, appealing to those looking for sustained benefits.

To learn more, read our detailed Acunetix vs. Fortify Application Defender Report (Updated: February 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Acunetix vs. Fortify Application Defender

February 2026

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Helped 881,733 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

Acunetix

Ranking in Application Security Tools

11th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Static Application Security Testing (SAST) (8th), Vulnerability Management (19th), DevSecOps (6th)

Fortify Application Defender

Ranking in Application Security Tools

24th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Application Security Tools category, the mindshare of Acunetix is 2.1%, down from 2.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Fortify Application Defender is 1.2%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Security Tools Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Acunetix	2.1%
Fortify Application Defender	1.2%
Other	96.7%

Application Security Tools

Featured Reviews

Rahul Kumar

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.

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VinothSivam

CTO at Abcl

Useful for fast code review in devOps pipelines

I rate the tool's scalability a seven out of ten. However, I'm concerned about how it handles an increasing number of lines of code. As the complexity grows, so does the time it takes for the tool to review everything. I want more clarity on how Fortify Application Defender handles multiple threats. We have numerous endpoints, but the tool runs in our pipeline, meaning it operates in the cloud. All our code is configured there, and the tool runs integration testing, unit testing, user testing, and final production code tests. It's a day-to-day experience. It's utilized almost every day as part of our pipeline runs. Each team responsible for integration testing, human testing, user access testing, and preproduction testing runs it whenever they take a build.

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

"Acunetix has an awesome crawler. It gives a referral site map of near targets and also goes really deep to find all the inputs without issues. This was valuable because it helped me find some files or directories, like web admin panels without authentication, which were hidden."

"By helping me patch vulnerabilities, Acunetix has led to measurable outcomes like time saved and fewer incidents."

"If an organization has 100 plus applications and wants to use an automated scanner, they should definitely go ahead with Acunetix because it is very cost-effective and will save time compared to focusing on other solutions and performing manual security assessments."

"There is a lot of documentation on their website which makes setting it up and using it quite simple."

"By integrating with CI/CD tools, it enables a shift-left approach in the development process."

"It generates automated reports."

"One of the features that I feel is groundbreaking, that I would like to see expanded on, is the IAS feature: The Interactive Application Security Testing module that gets loaded onto an application on a server, for more in-depth, granular findings. I think that is really neat. I haven't seen a lot of competitors doing that."

"The features of Acunetix have proved most effective in identifying vulnerabilities."

More Acunetix pros

"The most valuable features of Fortify Application Defender are the code packages that are default."

"The information from Fortify Application Defender on how to fix and solve issues is very good compared to other solutions."

"I find the configuration of rules in Fortify Application Defender useful. Its integration is also easy."

"The product saves us cost and time."

"The solution helped us to improve the code quality of our organization."

"The tool's most valuable feature is software composition analysis. This feature works well with my .NET applications, providing a better understanding of library vulnerabilities."

"We are able to provide out customers with a secure application after development. They are no longer left wondering if they are vulnerable to different threats within the market following deployment."

"Fortify Application Defender's most valuable features are machine learning algorithms, real-time remediation, and automatic vulnerability notifications."

More Fortify Application Defender pros

Cons

"I think Acunetix needs improvement since it is now working with Invicti, so the price list will need to be reconsidered."

"We want to see how much bandwidth usage it consumes. When we monitor traffic we have issues with the consumption and throttling of the traffic."

"The jargon used makes it difficult for project managers to understand the issues, and the technical explanations used make it difficult for developers to understand issues. These things should be simplified much more. That would be very helpful for us when explaining to them what needs to be fixed. The report output needs to be simplified."

"There is room for improvement in website authentication because I've seen other products that can do it much better."

"When monitoring the traffic we always have issues with the bandwidth consumption and the throttling of traffic."

"Integration into other tools is very limited for Acunetix. While we're trying to incorporate a CI/CD process where we're integrating with JIRA and we're integrating with Jenkins and Chef, it becomes problematic. Other tools give you a high integration capability to connect into different solutions that you may already have, like JIRA."

"The only problem that they have is the price. It is a bit expensive, and you cannot change the number of applications for the whole year."

"The solution can be improved by adding the ability to scan subdomains automatically, and by providing reports that can be exported to external databases to share with other solutions."

More Acunetix cons

"Fortify Application Defender could improve by supporting more code languages, such as GRAAS and Groovy."

"Support for older compilers/IDEs is lacking."

"I encountered many false positives for Python applications."

"Fortify Application Defender gives a lot of false positives."

"The workbench is a little bit complex when you first start using it."

"The false positive rate should be lower."

"The product should integrate industry-standard code review tools internally with its system. This would streamline the coding process, as developers wouldn't need multiple tools for code review and security checks. Many independent and open-source tools are available, from Apache to various libraries. Using multiple DevOps pipeline tools can slow the turnaround time."

"The solution is quite expensive."

More Fortify Application Defender cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing and licensing are reasonable to a point. In order to run multiple scans at a time, we are going to have to purchase a 100 count license, which is an overkill. Though, compared to what we were paying for, the cost seems reasonable."

"I would say that Acunetix is expensive because there are products on the market with similar features that are equally or better-priced."

"The cost is based on two types of licenses, ConsultLite, and ConsultPlus, as well as the number of domains that are scanned."

"The price is exceptionally high."

"Acunetix was around the same price as all the other vendors we looked at, nothing special."

"Implementing Acunetix needs a medium or larger business agency, because you need some money to get Acunetix. It is costly, but if you care about your agency's security, then maybe it's a cost that might help you in the future."

"All things considered, I think it has a good price/value ratio."

"The solution is expensive."

More Acunetix pricing and cost advice

"The product’s price is much higher than other tools."

"The price of this solution could be less expensive."

"Fortify Application Defender is very expensive."

"The base licensing costs for the SaaS platform is about $900 USD per application, per year."

"The licensing is very complex, it's project based and can range from $10,000 to $200,000+ depending on the project type and size."

"I rate the solution's pricing a five out of ten. It comes as an annual cloud subscription. The tool's pricing is around 50 lakhs."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Government

Financial Services Firm

15%

Manufacturing Company

12%

Government

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	15
Midsize Enterprise	7
Large Enterprise	17

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	3
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	8

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Acunetix Vulnerability Scanner?

The tool's most valuable feature is scan configurations. We use it for external physical applications. The scanning time depends on the application's code.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Acunetix Vulnerability Scanner?

I'm using Acunetix to automate security checks. Acunetix helped me catch common vulnerability issues early and improved the overall security posture of the application before development, specifica...

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering Acunetix Vulnerability Scanner?

I would advise anyone or any startup looking to engage in the security part to directly use Acunetix, as this will help in most aspects. I would rate this product a nine out of ten.

See all answers

What do you like most about Fortify Application Defender?

I find the configuration of rules in Fortify Application Defender useful. Its integration is also easy.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Fortify Application Defender?

The product should integrate industry-standard code review tools internally with its system. This would streamline the coding process, as developers wouldn't need multiple tools for code review and...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Fortify Application Defender?

We use the solution for fast code review. It is integrated into our DevOps pipeline.

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 14% of the time

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Compared 8% of the time

Invicti vs Acunetix

Compared 7% of the time

SonarQube vs Acunetix

Compared 5% of the time

HCL AppScan vs Acunetix

Compared 5% of the time

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Checkmarx One vs Fortify Application Defender

Compared 14% of the time

SonarQube vs Fortify Application Defender

Compared 9% of the time

Coverity Static vs Fortify Application Defender

Compared 5% of the time

Klocwork vs Fortify Application Defender

Compared 5% of the time

Qualys Web Application Scanning vs Fortify Application Defender

Compared 5% of the time

More Fortify Application Defender Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Acunetix

February 2026

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Buyer's Guide

Application Security Tools

February 2026

Download Fortify Application Defender product report

Also Known As

AcuSensor

HPE Fortify Application Defender, Micro Focus Fortify Application Defender

Overview

Acunetix Web Vulnerability Scanner is an automated web application security testing tool that audits your web applications by checking for vulnerabilities like SQL Injection, Cross site scripting, and other exploitable vulnerabilities.

Invicti

Micro Focus Security Fortify Application Defender is a runtime application self-protection (RASP) solution that helps you manage and mitigate risk from homegrown or third-party applications. It provides centralized visibility into application use and abuse while protecting from software vulnerability exploits and other violations in real time.

OpenText

Sample Customers

Joomla!, Digicure, Team Random, Credit Suisse, Samsung, Air New Zealand

ServiceMaster, Saltworks, SAP

Buyer's Guide

Acunetix vs. Fortify Application Defender

February 2026

Free Report: Acunetix vs. Fortify Application Defender

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