Defensics Protocol Fuzzing vs HCL AppScan comparison

The compared Black Duck and HCLSoftware solutions aren't in the same category. Black Duck is ranked #4 in FTT , and holds a 23.3% mindshare in the category. HCLSoftware is ranked #15 in AS , with an average rating of 8.3, and holds a 2.5% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Black Duck users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 84% of HCLSoftware users who would recommend it.

Defensics Protocol Fuzzing

Read 4 Defensics Protocol Fuzzing reviews

1,067 Views
117 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

HCL AppScan

Read 43 HCL AppScan reviews

4,377 Views
3,108 Comparison Views

84% willing to recommend

Defensics Protocol Fuzzing

HCL AppScan

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Defensics Protocol Fuzzing and HCL AppScan based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about PortSwigger, OWASP, GitLab and others in Fuzz Testing Tools.

To learn more, read our detailed Defensics Protocol Fuzzing vs. PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Defensics Protocol Fuzzing vs. PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional

September 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 868,759 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

Defensics Protocol Fuzzing

Average Rating

8.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Fuzz Testing Tools (4th)

HCL AppScan

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

5.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Security Tools (15th), Static Application Security Testing (SAST) (14th), Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST) (1st)

Mindshare comparison

While both are Quality Assurance solutions, they serve different purposes. Defensics Protocol Fuzzing is designed for Fuzz Testing Tools and holds a mindshare of 23.3%, up 19.3% compared to last year.
HCL AppScan, on the other hand, focuses on Application Security Tools, holds 2.5% mindshare, down 2.6% since last year.

Fuzz Testing Tools Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Defensics Protocol Fuzzing	23.3%
PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional	31.5%
GitLab	22.6%
Other	22.599999999999994%

Fuzz Testing Tools

Application Security Tools Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
HCL AppScan	2.5%
SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube)	20.5%
Checkmarx One	10.4%
Other	66.6%

Application Security Tools

Featured Reviews

Sarath Kumar Choday

Senior Technical Lead at HCL Technologies

Product security tests for switches and router sections

Codenomicon Defensics should be more advanced for the testing sector. It should be somewhat easy and flexible to install. What I see in the documentation isn't that. Even if something doesn't malfunction, sometimes it is hard to install and execute. The product needs video documentation. This would help a lot more.

Read full review

Gladwin Christian

QA manager at SmartStream Technologies ltd.

A useful tool to scan applications that can be easily installed

Given that we have been using HCL AppScan for many years, I think the setup process is not difficult at all. Sometimes, some issues stop or prevent my company from moving forward with the product's setup phase. We have to call HCL's support team and engage in long discussions to smoothly carry out the setup phase. In general, the product's setup phase is not difficult in our company. The solution is deployed on an on-premises model. The licenses for the solution are available only on cloud deployments nowadays. The solution is already installed in our environment. Every time a new release or software comes out from HCL, our company does a scan, which takes maybe a day or two.

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

"Whatever the test suit they give, it is intelligent. It will understand the protocol and it will generate the test cases based on the protocol: protocol, message sequence, protocol, message structure... Because of that, we can eliminate a lot of unwanted test cases, so we can execute the tests and complete them very quickly."

"The product is related to US usage with TLS contact fees, i.e. how more data center connections will help lower networking costs."

"We have found multiple issues in our embedded system network protocols, related to buffer overflow. We have reduced some of these issues."

"It was easy to set up."

"The product has valuable features for static and dynamic testing."

"IBM AppScan has made our work easy, as we can do four to five scans of websites at a time, which saves time when it comes to vulnerability."

"The most valuable feature of HCL AppScan is its integration with the SDLC, particularly during the coding phase."

"This is a stable solution."

"The most valuable feature of HCL AppScan is scanning QR codes."

"It comes with all of the templates that we need. For example, we are a company that is regulated by PCI. In order to be PCI compliant, we have a lot of checks and procedures to which we have to comply."

"Compared to other tools only AppScan supports special language."

More HCL AppScan pros

Cons

"It does not support the complete protocol stack. There are some IoT protocols that are not supported and new protocols that are not supported."

"Codenomicon Defensics should be more advanced for the testing sector. It should be somewhat easy and flexible to install."

"Sometimes, when we are testing embedded devices, when we trigger the test cases, the target will crash immediately. It is very difficult for us to identify the root cause of the crash because they do not provide sophisticated tools on the target side. They cover only the client-side application... They do not have diagnostic tools for the target side. Rather, they have them but they are very minimal and not very helpful."

"I think being able to search across more containers, especially some of the docker elements. We need a little tighter integration there. That's the only thing I can see at this point."

"Scans become slow on large websites."

"The databases for HCL are small and have room for improvement."

"There are so many lines of code with so many different categories that I am likely to get lost. "

"Many silly false positives are produced."

"I would love to see more containers. Many of the tools are great, they require an amount of configuration, setup and infrastructure. If most the applications were in a container, I think everything would be a little bit faster, because all our clients are now using containers."

"The penetration testing feature should be included."

"They could incorporate AI to enhance vulnerability detection and improve the product's reporting capabilities."

More HCL AppScan cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Licensing is a bit expensive."

"The tool was expensive."

"With the features, that they offer, and the support, they offer, AppScan pricing is on a higher level."

"HCL AppScan is expensive."

"Our clients are willing to pay the extra money. It is expensive."

"The product is moderately priced, though it's an investment due to extensive code analysis needs."

"AppScan is a little bit expensive. IBM needs to work a little bit on the pricing model, decreasing the license cost."

"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 solution is cheap."

More HCL AppScan pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Fuzz Testing Tools solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

868,759 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

20%

Manufacturing Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

Retailer

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Government

10%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	13
Midsize Enterprise	6
Large Enterprise	31

Questions from the Community

Ask a question

Earn 20 points

What do you like most about HCL AppScan?

The most valuable feature of HCL AppScan is its integration with the SDLC, particularly during the coding phase.

See all answers

What needs improvement with HCL AppScan?

AppScan needs to improve its handling of false positives. It also requires enhancements in customer support, similar to what Veracode provides. Regularly scheduling calls with clients to discuss fe...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for HCL AppScan?

The primary use case for AppScan is for security purposes. I compare AppScan with other tools such as Veracode. We use AppScan for vulnerability detection and auto-remediation of vulnerabilities wi...

See all answers

Comparisons

SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) vs Defensics Protocol Fuzzing

Compared 31% of the time

Veracode vs Defensics Protocol Fuzzing

Compared 14% of the time

Coverity Static vs Defensics Protocol Fuzzing

Compared 12% of the time

Ixia BreakingPoint vs Defensics Protocol Fuzzing

Compared 10% of the time

Invicti vs Defensics Protocol Fuzzing

Compared 9% of the time

More Defensics Protocol Fuzzing Competitors

SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) vs HCL AppScan

Compared 12% of the time

Acunetix vs HCL AppScan

Compared 11% of the time

Veracode vs HCL AppScan

Compared 11% of the time

OWASP Zap vs HCL AppScan

Compared 8% of the time

Coverity Static vs HCL AppScan

Compared 2% of the time

More HCL AppScan Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Defensics Protocol Fuzzing vs. PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional

September 2025

Download Defensics Protocol Fuzzing product report

Buyer's Guide

HCL AppScan

September 2025

Download HCL AppScan product report

Also Known As

Codenomicon Defensics

IBM Security AppScan, Rational AppScan, AppScan

Overview

Defensics® fuzz testing is a comprehensive, powerful, and automated black box solution that enables organizations to effectively and efficiently discover and remediate security weaknesses in software. By taking a systematic and intelligent approach to negative testing, Defensics allows organizations to ensure software security without compromising on product innovation, increasing time to market, or inflating operational costs.

Black Duck

IBM Security AppScan enhances web application security and mobile application security, improves application security program management and strengthens regulatory compliance. By scanning your web and mobile applications prior to deployment, AppScan enables you to identify security vulnerabilities and generate reports and fix recommendations.

HCLSoftware

Sample Customers

Coriant, CERT-FI, Next Generation Networks

Essex Technology Group Inc., Cisco, West Virginia University, APIS IT

Buyer's Guide

Defensics Protocol Fuzzing vs. PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional

September 2025

Free Report: Defensics Protocol Fuzzing vs. PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional

Find out what your peers are saying about Defensics Protocol Fuzzing vs. PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

868,759 professionals have used our research since 2012.

We monitor all Fuzz Testing Tools reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.