Contrast Security Assess vs GitHub Advanced Security comparison

Contrast Security and GitHub are both solutions in the Application Security Tools category. Contrast Security is ranked #29, while GitHub is ranked #11 with an average rating of 8.0. Contrast Security holds a 1.3% mindshare in AS, compared to GitHub’s 3.9% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Contrast Security users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 91% of GitHub users who would recommend it.

Contrast Security Assess

Read 11 Contrast Security Assess reviews

2,206 Views
1,478 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

GitHub Advanced Security

Read 12 GitHub Advanced Security reviews

7,051 Views
7,051 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

Contrast Security Assess

GitHub Advanced Security

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 8, 2024

Contrast Security Assess and GitHub Advanced Security are products in the software security domain. GitHub Advanced Security has a feature advantage, making it a preferred choice despite higher pricing.

Features: Contrast Security Assess offers runtime protection, real-time vulnerability detection, and sensitive data protection. GitHub Advanced Security provides seamless integration with GitHub repositories, superior code scanning, and advanced vulnerability alerts.

Room for Improvement: Contrast Security Assess could enhance its code scanning capabilities, broaden integration options beyond runtime environments, and improve alert customization features. GitHub Advanced Security might benefit from easier deployment outside GitHub environments, better support for non-GitHub users, and more comprehensive sensitive data protection.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Contrast Security Assess has a straightforward deployment model with effective customer support, enabling quick onboarding. GitHub Advanced Security integrates smoothly with GitHub workflows, simplifying deployment for users but may present challenges in non-GitHub contexts. Both offer commendable support, with Contrast Security Assess noted for faster response times.

Pricing and ROI: Contrast Security Assess has a lower upfront cost, offering good immediate ROI with its monitoring. GitHub Advanced Security has a higher setup cost but provides ROI for organizations focusing on continuous integration due to its advanced automation features. Contrast Security Assess is attractive for smaller organizations, while GitHub Advanced Security suits larger enterprises seeking integrated solutions.

To learn more, read our detailed Contrast Security Assess vs. GitHub Advanced Security Report (Updated: March 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Contrast Security Assess vs. GitHub Advanced Security

March 2026

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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

Contrast Security Assess

Ranking in Application Security Tools

29th

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Static Application Security Testing (SAST) (27th)

GitHub Advanced Security

Ranking in Application Security Tools

11th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Application Security Tools category, the mindshare of Contrast Security Assess is 1.3%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of GitHub Advanced Security is 3.9%, down from 8.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Security Tools Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
GitHub Advanced Security	3.9%
Contrast Security Assess	1.3%
Other	94.8%

Application Security Tools

Featured Reviews

reviewer1605099

Director of Threat and Vulnerability Management at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees

We're gathering vulnerability data from multiple environments in real time, fundamentally changing how we identify issues in applications

The solution is very accurate in identifying vulnerabilities. In cases where we are performing application assessment using Contrast Assess, and also using legacy application security testing tools, Contrast successfully identifies the same vulnerabilities that the other tools have identified but it also identifies significantly more. In addition, it has visibility into application components that other testing methodologies are unaware of. Assess also provides the option of helping developers incorporate security elements while they're writing code. It depends on whether individual developers decide to utilize the information that's provided to them from the solution, but it definitely gives them visibility into more environments. It gives them an opportunity to remediate vulnerabilities well before production deployments.

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Devendiran Kandan

DevOps Engineer at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees

Security scanning has protected our pipelines but currently needs clearer dashboards and controls

We used additional third-party solutions, but we replaced them with GitHub Advanced Security, even though I do not have a very good opinion about GitHub Advanced Security. Even though it is an inline product, I'm not seeing user-friendly things in GitHub Advanced Security. Dependent bots and the secret detection are good compared to others. However, code scanning is not finding very good results based on pipeline where it will scan and do code scanning. While build, before building and deploying the code, we want to block or do an advanced model, but it is not supporting. During deployment, code scanning is not good. It is a little complicated. It is not a straightforward method we can complete. We need expertise to get the full benefit, and troubleshooting sometimes requires going through that. The security overview dashboard is not really clear. It's not showing centralized information; each repo is showing, but if you compare it with competitors, it is not that great. Mainly in the centralized dashboard, enterprise level needs to improve. A centralized way where we can get that overall view is needed, and we want that code scanning and blocking deployments based on security. There are AI improvements, but however, it is not so easy to configure. It is multiple windows we need to go through and make changes or configure that. A few things we need to enable going into settings, and a few things we can find out in security. One product where security means the security dashboard should cover everything, but it is going here and there in many places.

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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

"In our most critical applications, we have a deep dive in the code evaluation, which was something we usually did with periodic vulnerability assessments, code reviews, etc. Now, we have real time access to it. It's something that has greatly enhanced our code's quality. We have actually embedded a KPI in regards to the improvement of our code shell. For example, Contrast provides a baseline where libraries and the usability of the code are evaluated, and they produce a score. We always aim to improve that score. On a quarterly basis, we have added this to our KPIs."

"The most valuable feature is the continuous monitoring aspect: the fact that we don't have to wait for scans to complete for the tool to identify vulnerabilities. They're automatically identified through developers' business-as-usual processes."

"This has changed the way that developers are looking at usage of third-party libraries, upfront. It's changing our model of development and our culture of development to ensure that there is more thought being put into the usage of third-party libraries."

"It is a stable solution...Contrast Security Assess is one of the first players in this market, so they have experience and customers, especially abroad. Overall, it's a good product."

"Assess has an excellent API interface to pull APIs."

"By far, the thing that was able to provide value was the immediate response while testing ahead of release, in real-time."

"I am impressed with the product's identification of alerts and vulnerabilities."

"We use the Contrast OSS feature that allows us to look at third-party, open-source software libraries, because it has a cool interface where you can look at all the different libraries. It has some really cool additional features where it gives us how many instances in which something has been used... It tells us it has been used 10 times out of 20 workloads, for example. Then we know for sure that OSS is being used."

More Contrast Security Assess pros

"It is a stable solution...It is a scalable solution as it can handle new applications along with the analysis part."

"I have not experienced any performance or stability issues with GitHub Advanced Security."

"The product's most valuable features are security scan, dependency scan, and cost-effectiveness."

"Dependency scanning is a valuable feature."

"GitHub provides advanced security, which is why the customers choose this tool; it allows them to rely solely on GitHub as one platform for everything they need."

"GitHub Advanced Security is a very developer-friendly solution that is integrated within my development environment."

"The initial setup was straightforward and completed in a matter of minutes."

"It ensures user passwords or sensitive information are not accidentally exposed in code or reports."

More GitHub Advanced Security pros

Cons

"The product's retesting part needs improvement. The tool also needs improvement in the suggestions provided for fixing vulnerabilities. It relies more on documentation rather than on quick fixes."

"Personalization of the board and how to make it appealing to an organization is something that could be done on their end. The reports could be adaptable to the customer's preferences."

"The solution needs to improve flexibility...The scalability of the product is a problem in the solution, especially from a commercial perspective."

"I think there was activity underway to support the centralized configuration control. There are ways to do it, but I think they were productizing more of that."

"To instrument an agent, it has to be running on a type of application technology that the agent recognizes and understands. It's excellent when it works. If we're using an application that is using an unsupported technology, then we can't instrument it at all. We do use PHP and Contrast presently doesn't support that, although it's on their roadmap. My primary hurdle is that it doesn't support all of the technologies that we use."

"The solution should provide more details in the section where it shows that third-party libraries have CVEs or some vulnerabilities."

"I would like to see them come up with more scanning rules."

"Regarding the solution's OSS feature, the one drawback that we do have is that it does not have client-side support. We'll be missing identification of libraries like jQuery or JavaScript, and such, that are client-side."

More Contrast Security Assess cons

"Open-source security vulnerabilities are not getting updated in a timely manner."

"An area of GitHub Advanced Security that has room for improvement is customization."

"The reporting feature might need improvement. While it integrates seamlessly with my workflow, it doesn't provide management with oversight, such as statistics and the number of vulnerabilities."

"GitHub Advanced Security should look into API security issues, which they currently do not. Additionally, open-source security vulnerabilities are not getting updated in a timely manner."

"The report limitations are the main issue."

"There could be DST features included in the product."

"Maybe make it compatible with more programming languages. Have a customized ruleset where the end-user can create their own rules for scanning."

"A more refined approach, categorizing and emphasizing specific vulnerabilities, would be beneficial."

More GitHub Advanced Security cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"You only get one license for an application. Ours are very big, monolithic applications with millions of lines of code. We were able to apply one license to one monolithic application, which is great. We are happy with the licensing. Pricing-wise, they are industry-standard, which is fine."

"The product's pricing is low. I would rate it a two out of ten."

"The solution is expensive."

"It's a tiered licensing model. The more you buy, as you cross certain quantity thresholds, the pricing changes. If you have a smaller environment, your licensing costs are going to be different than a larger environment... The licensing is primarily per application. An application can be as many agents as you need. If you've got 10 development servers and 20 production servers and 50 QA servers, all of those agents can be reporting as a single application that utilizes one license."

"For what it offers, it's a very reasonable cost. The way that it is priced is extremely straightforward. It works on the number of applications that you use, and you license a server. It is something that is extremely fair, because it doesn't take into consideration the number of requests, etc. It is only priced based on the number of onboarded applications. It suits our model as well, because we have huge traffic. Our number of applications is not that large, so the pricing works great for us."

"The good news is that the agent itself comes in two different forms: the unlicensed form and the licensed form. Unlicensed gives use of that software composition analysis for free. Thereafter, if you apply a license to that same agent, that's when the instrumentation takes hold. So one of my suggestions is to do what we're doing: Deploy the agent to as many applications as possible, with just the SCA feature turned on with no license applied, and then you can be more choosy and pick which teams will get the license applied."

"I like the per-application licensing model... We just license the app and we look at different vulnerabilities on that app and we remediate within the app. It's simpler."

"The solution is expensive."

"The current licensing model, which relies on active commitments, poses challenges, particularly in predicting and managing growth."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

20%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Computer Software Company

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

14%

Computer Software Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	2
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	6

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	1
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	7

Questions from the Community

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What needs improvement with GitHub Advanced Security?

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What is your primary use case for GitHub Advanced Security?

I'm working with software development nowadays. As a process, we are using the dependent bot alerts and the code scanning for Java, and some of the code scanning is happening. Security secrets in c...

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What advice do you have for others considering GitHub Advanced Security?

Dependent bots and the secret detection are good compared to others. However, code scanning is not finding very good results based on pipeline where it will scan and do code scanning. While build, ...

See all answers

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Compared 13% of the time

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Compared 11% of the time

Checkmarx One vs GitHub Advanced Security

Compared 7% of the time

Mend.io vs GitHub Advanced Security

Compared 5% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Contrast Security Assess

March 2026

Download Contrast Security Assess product report

Buyer's Guide

GitHub Advanced Security

March 2026

Download GitHub Advanced Security product report

Also Known As

Contrast Assess

No data available

Overview

Contrast Security is the world’s leading provider of security technology that enables software applications to protect themselves against cyberattacks, heralding the new era of self-protecting software. Contrast's patented deep security instrumentation is the breakthrough technology that enables highly accurate assessment and always-on protection of an entire application portfolio, without disruptive scanning or expensive security experts. Only Contrast has sensors that work actively inside applications to uncover vulnerabilities, prevent data breaches, and secure the entire enterprise from development, to operations, to production.

Contrast Security

GitHub Advanced Security secures data by scanning for vulnerabilities in dependencies, secret scanning, and protecting sensitive information. It integrates seamlessly, reducing reliance on multiple tools and optimizing vulnerability detection.

GitHub Advanced Security is designed to enhance security awareness by offering comprehensive tools for secret scanning, code analysis, and SCSS dependency checks. AI-driven features deliver accurate security insights while minimizing false positives. It provides valuable integration with Azure DevOps, maintaining control within dashboards and enabling external systems' support through APIs. With CodeQL, users can perform custom queries across projects. Propelled by Microsoft, the platform enhances operational frameworks with essential security features, although improvements are needed in dashboard consolidation, reporting, and integration mechanisms. Users seek better customizability, language support, and training resources to ensure smoother implementation.

What are the key features of GitHub Advanced Security?

Security and Dependency Scanning: Identifies vulnerabilities in code and dependencies.
Secret Scanning: Detects sensitive information exposure.
Cost-effectiveness: Reduces the need for multiple security tools.
Developer Experience: Integrates seamlessly with development environments.
Extensibility: Custom queries via CodeQL and integration support.

What benefits and ROI can users expect?

Improved Security Posture: Enhanced visibility reduces risk.
Operational Efficiency: Streamlines processes with fewer tools.
Actionable Insights: AI-driven analysis provides clear guidance.
Enhanced Collaboration: Facilitates team integration through shared dashboards.

Industries implement GitHub Advanced Security to maintain robust security standards. It is favored by technology sectors seeking seamless integration with Azure DevOps and looking for customizable security tools tailored to project needs. Financial institutions value its accurate threat detection and compliance support, while enterprises focus on its comprehensive dependency scanning and code analysis capabilities to safeguard critical assets. The adaptability of GitHub Advanced Security across different operational environments illustrates its practical benefits.

GitHub

Sample Customers

Williams-Sonoma, Autodesk, HUAWEI, Chromeriver, RingCentral, Demandware.

Information Not Available

Buyer's Guide

Contrast Security Assess vs. GitHub Advanced Security

March 2026

Free Report: Contrast Security Assess vs. GitHub Advanced Security

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