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Contrast Security Protect vs HCL AppScan comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 3, 2026

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 Protect
Ranking in Application Security Tools
36th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
5.8
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
HCL AppScan
Ranking in Application Security Tools
23rd
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
5.9
Number of Reviews
44
Ranking in other categories
Static Application Security Testing (SAST) (20th), Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST) (7th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Application Security Tools category, the mindshare of Contrast Security Protect is 1.1%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of HCL AppScan is 2.2%, down from 2.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Application Security Tools Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
HCL AppScan2.2%
Contrast Security Protect1.1%
Other96.7%
Application Security Tools
 

Featured Reviews

ToddMcAlister - PeerSpot reviewer
Lead Application and Data Security Engineer at a insurance company with 5,001-10,000 employees
It provides us with more in-depth visibility into ongoing attacks.
I rate Contrast Security Protect eight out of 10. Overall, it's a solid product, but I deduct a couple of points because of the interface and some shortcomings in the reporting. If you have a large enterprise where you're dealing with a lot of servers, then it makes sense not to use the internal MySQL database. You should use something like Oracle or Microsoft SQL, but if you don't have many transactions, the embedded MySQL database works great.
Ravi Khanchandani - PeerSpot reviewer
Founder Director at Techsa Services
Has improved identification of encryption and authentication issues across cloud and on-prem applications
During the learning curve of onboarding HCL AppScan, we learned that HCL has altered the portfolio and now offers HCL AppScan 360, which has a much better look and feel with an improved user interface. However, there is one feature called SCA, which stands for Software Composition Analysis, that could be improved. When I'm doing an application scan, HCL AppScan has the ability to generate information about what components are in use. For example, if I'm scanning a web application, it shows me the various components being used. It tells me whether I have Java libraries, .NET frameworks, or other log management libraries such as Log4j, and what versions of those specific components are present. I would like to see more detailed reports from the tool. Currently, you can find out the components belonging to a specific software, but if detailed reporting became available, you would be in a better position to identify vulnerabilities. For instance, I could identify that I had the Log4j vulnerability and know that I need to fix my application accordingly. If they add the features I'm describing, I would consider giving them a higher rating. However, I've only been experienced with the product for three months.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Contrast Security's support is great. They're willing to spend a lot of time on your problem."
"The product gives a few false positives. We get 99 percent true positives."
"The Protect solution allows applications to continue to run, even with known vulnerabilities, but will report or block attempts to exploit the vulnerabilities."
"The solution has excellent real-time capabilities."
"Protect provides us with more in-depth visibility into ongoing attacks."
"The support I have received has been good."
"AppScan seems to be very good at detecting reflected XSS vulnerabilities."
"I mainly use AppScan for vulnerability scanning and database bridging."
"IBM Applications Security has contributed to the maturity of our AppSec risk management program."
"It is easy it is to use. It is quick to find things, because of the code scanning tools. It's quite simple to use and it is very good the way it reports the findings."
"It has certainly improved our organization in terms of quality of solutions that are developed."
"The security and the dashboard are the most valuable features."
"SAST is the only feature that works using the on-prem version."
 

Cons

"Protect's reporting GUI is very basic. To get all statuses from the APIs, we needed to write our own KPI dashboard to provide reports."
"There's room for improvement in the initial setup."
"We're not using it much anymore because we had some performance issues."
"Contrast Security Protect needs to improve integration."
"The solution often has a high number of false positives. It's an aspect they really need to improve upon."
"Visibility is an issue for us. Our partners were not even aware that we had an integration with AppSense."
"Many silly false positives are produced."
"The pricing has room for improvement."
"We would like to integrate with some of the other reporting tools that we're planning to use in the future."
"Scans become slow on large websites."
"The databases for HCL are small and have room for improvement."
"A desktop version should be added."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"I would rate the product's pricing a nine out of ten. The product's pricing is expensive compared to the features that they offer."
"The product is moderately priced, though it's an investment due to extensive code analysis needs."
"Our clients are willing to pay the extra money. It is expensive."
"With the features, that they offer, and the support, they offer, AppScan pricing is on a higher level."
"I rate the product's price a seven on a scale of one to ten, where one is low, and ten is high. HCL AppScan is an expensive tool."
"The solution is moderately priced."
"AppScan is a little bit expensive. IBM needs to work a little bit on the pricing model, decreasing the license cost."
"HCL AppScan is expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
17%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Construction Company
9%
Outsourcing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Construction Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business14
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise31
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
What needs improvement with HCL AppScan?
During the learning curve of onboarding HCL AppScan, we learned that HCL has altered the portfolio and now offers HCL AppScan 360, which has a much better look and feel with an improved user interf...
What is your primary use case for HCL AppScan?
I'm currently working with BigFix and HCL AppScan. At least three people in my company are using HCL AppScan. Since we are a reseller, we run it in both lab environments and live production applica...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for HCL AppScan?
AppScan is considered more cost-effective than Veracode, although I have not updated the exact pricing details. Companies often choose based on budget constraints, with Veracode being on the higher...
 

Also Known As

Contrast Protect
IBM Security AppScan, Rational AppScan, AppScan
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Williams-Sonoma, Autodesk, HUAWEI, Chromeriver, RingCentral, Demandware.
Essex Technology Group Inc., Cisco, West Virginia University, APIS IT
Find out what your peers are saying about Contrast Security Protect vs. HCL AppScan and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
913,806 professionals have used our research since 2012.