Contrast Security Assess vs Tenable.io Web Application Scanning comparison

Contrast Security and Tenable are both solutions in the Application Security Tools category. Contrast Security is ranked #29, while Tenable is ranked #20 with an average rating of 8.5. Contrast Security holds a 1.3% mindshare in AS, compared to Tenable’s 1.4% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Contrast Security users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of Tenable 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

Tenable.io Web Application ...

Read 18 Tenable.io Web Application Scanning reviews

2,265 Views
1,835 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

Contrast Security Assess

Tenable.io Web Application ...

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 8, 2024

Contrast Security Assess and Tenable.io Web Application Scanning are leading tools in the web application security category. Users find Tenable.io superior due to its comprehensive feature set, justifying its price, while Contrast Security stands out for price satisfaction and support.

Features: Contrast Security Assess offers seamless integration capabilities, real-time vulnerability analysis, and good user experience. Tenable.io Web Application Scanning provides detailed reporting, a wide scope of security threat coverage, and extensive threat intelligence.

Room for Improvement: Contrast Security Assess could improve its automation for reduced manual intervention and usability enhancements. Tenable.io Web Application Scanning can benefit from faster scan results, better integration with other tools, and a more intuitive user interface.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Contrast Security Assess is known for straightforward deployment but may face initial configuration challenges. It offers responsive customer service. Tenable.io Web Application Scanning provides deployment flexibility across various environments but needs more comprehensive support resources.

Pricing and ROI: Contrast Security Assess is perceived to offer good value with satisfactory ROI attributed to its security benefits and ease of use. Tenable.io Web Application Scanning is a bigger investment, yet users see a high ROI due to its thorough features and security reliability.

To learn more, read our detailed Contrast Security Assess vs. Tenable.io Web Application Scanning Report (Updated: March 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Contrast Security Assess vs. Tenable.io Web Application Scanning

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)

Tenable.io Web Application ...

Ranking in Application Security Tools

20th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

5.8

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 Tenable.io Web Application Scanning is 1.4%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Security Tools Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Tenable.io Web Application Scanning	1.4%
Contrast Security Assess	1.3%
Other	97.3%

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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Hatem Langar

Security Analyst at TOPNET

Web audits have identified vulnerabilities and now provide clear visibility into compliance gaps

We have experience with Tenable.io Web Application Scanning, and we use it as well; we have approximately ten licenses for web application scanning. We use it to find vulnerabilities, but Tenable.io Web Application Scanning does not include remediation; we remediate with other products. We use the…

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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

"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."

"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."

"When we access the application, it continuously monitors and detects vulnerabilities."

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

"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."

"No other tool does the runtime scanning like Contrast does. Other static analysis tools do static scanning, but Contrast is runtime analysis, when the routes are exercised. That's when the scan happens. This is a tool that has a very unique capability compared to other tools. That's what I like most about Contrast, that it's runtime."

"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 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."

More Contrast Security Assess pros

"Tenable provides the end analysis results covering all the published vulnerabilities and information on the market."

"Now that the license is centralized, it's a significant feature to manipulate assets based on their functions."

"We can get detailed information about vulnerabilities."

"I would recommend Tenable.io Web Application Scanning to others."

"The initial setup is straightforward."

"All the features are valuable to us as they offer cutting-edge scanning methods and address the latest issues with a contemporary approach. Tenable.io Web Application Scanning is highly stable. I rate it a nine out ten. Since the solution works on the Cloud, it's highly scalable. I rate the scalability a nine out of ten. The setup of the solution is straightforward. The Return on Investment is substantial. I recommend the solution to all."

"It is fully automated."

"It has good unified web application scanning and exposure management."

More Tenable.io Web Application Scanning pros

Cons

"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."

"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."

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

"Contrast's ability to support upgrades on the actual agents that get deployed is limited. Our environment is pretty much entirely Java. There are no updates associated with that. You have to actually download a new version of the .jar file and push that out to your servers where your app is hosted. That can be quite cumbersome from a change-management perspective."

"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."

"The out-of-the-box reporting could be improved. We need to write our own APIs to make the reporting more robust."

"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

"The solution's dashboards could be improved and made more user-friendly."

"The technical support should be improved. Currently, some attacks are detected while others are not."

"The cloud and the on-premises versions have their own controllers, and there is no way to centrally manage controllers."

"The market is standard for vulnerability scanning, however, the posture can be improved through Tenable's prioritization engine."

"They have a general dashboard for web application scanning, but the dashboards and reporting can be improved. They probably have some features in their roadmap."

"We have encountered some problems with the technical support from Tenable; I would rate it a five out of ten. It is not efficacious, especially the first-level support."

"I would like for them to add proxy filtering, where you can transfer and alter the package. It is fully automated. Other web application testers programs are actually proxy software, and the proxy software gives you the flexibility of modifying the outgoing package, which will actually help you in exploiting any vulnerability in detail."

"The reporting has a very limited customization capability."

More Tenable.io Web Application Scanning cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

"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."

"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."

"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 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."

"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."

"The application is extremely affordable. There are no additional costs involved with licensing. We switched to Tenable.io Web Application Scanning from other solutions due to pricing."

"It follows the same licensing scheme as Tenable.io and Tenable. sc."

"The pricing is okay."

"I rate the product's pricing a four out of ten."

"For Tenable.io Web Application Scanning, it comes to around 6,50,000 Indian rupees, plus taxes."

"Tenable.io Web Application Scanning is expensive for small businesses."

"The price of the solution is reasonable compared to the competitors. The license cost is based on the number of users and the annual usage."

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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

12%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Computer Software Company

10%

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	7
Midsize Enterprise	5
Large Enterprise	7

Questions from the Community

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What needs improvement with Tenable.io Web Application Scanning?

If there were a solution, I would like to see automation and an integrated remediation solution for vulnerability or patch management.

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What advice do you have for others considering Tenable.io Web Application Scanning?

I do not understand what API approach means; I do not understand this term. I think Tenable.io Web Application Scanning is the best option on the market at the moment. My review rating for this pro...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Tenable.io Web Application Scanning?

I think the price is expensive. We do not have an idea of how much we have to pay approximately, but comparing to other products, Tenable.io Web Application Scanning is expensive.

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Contrast Security Assess

March 2026

Download Contrast Security Assess product report

Buyer's Guide

Application Security Tools

February 2026

Tenable.io Web Application Scanning report

Download Tenable.io Web Application Scanning 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

Tenable.io Web Application Scanning safely, accurately and automatically scans your web applications, providing deep visibility into vulnerabilities and valuable context to prioritize remediation.

Tenable

Sample Customers

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

IMDEX

Buyer's Guide

Contrast Security Assess vs. Tenable.io Web Application Scanning

March 2026

Free Report: Contrast Security Assess vs. Tenable.io Web Application Scanning

Find out what your peers are saying about Contrast Security Assess vs. Tenable.io Web Application Scanning and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.

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