HCL AppScan vs Invicti comparison

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HCL AppScan

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 8, 2024

HCL AppScan and Invicti are key competitors in the application security testing domain. Invicti seems to have the upper hand due to its comprehensive features and high user satisfaction, overshadowing HCL AppScan’s robust testing capabilities.

Features: HCL AppScan is noted for advanced scanning tools, detailed reporting, and addressing vulnerabilities efficiently. Invicti offers strong automation capabilities, ease of integration into existing development workflows, and streamlined processes which many users find more effective.

Room for Improvement: HCL AppScan could focus on improving its learning curve, enhancing dashboards for better usability, and offering more intuitive interfaces. Invicti should work on refining reporting features, providing more detailed scan insights, and improving report comprehensiveness.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: HCL AppScan users experience a steep deployment curve but commend its customer service. Invicti provides a simpler deployment process and receives positive feedback for responsive support, making it more accessible for quick setup and assistance.

Pricing and ROI: HCL AppScan has competitive pricing and delivers satisfactory ROI for those prioritizing comprehensive scanning. Invicti, despite a higher price point, is valued for its advanced capabilities and automation, leading to a perceived strong ROI especially by those prioritizing efficiency and thoroughness.

To learn more, read our detailed HCL AppScan vs. Invicti Report (Updated: September 2025).

HCL AppScan vs. Invicti

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Helped 868,787 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

HCL AppScan

Ranking in Static Application Security Testing (SAST)

14th

Ranking in Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST)

1st

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

5.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Security Tools (15th)

Invicti

Ranking in Static Application Security Testing (SAST)

15th

Ranking in Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST)

5th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

API Security (10th)

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST) category, the mindshare of HCL AppScan is 14.0%, down from 22.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Invicti is 11.7%, up from 10.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST) Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
HCL AppScan	14.0%
Invicti	11.7%
Other	74.3%

Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST)

Featured Reviews

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.

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Kunal M

Capability Center Leader, ETRM Platforms at Shell

Proactive scanning measures and realistic audit recommendations enhance development focus

Invicti's proactive scanning measures vulnerabilities each time we deploy or push code to a new environment. This feature helps us focus on priorities and prioritize the development team's effort, integrating seamlessly with DevOps to facilitate proactive scans of environments. Invicti also provides audit recommendations that are quite realistic, making it easy to discuss plans with developers.

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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

"It's generally a very user-friendly tool. Anyone can easily learn how to scan"

"This is a stable solution."

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

"The most valuable feature of the solution is Postman."

"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."

"It identifies all the URLs and domains on its own and then performs tests and provides the results."

"The security and the dashboard are the most valuable features."

More HCL AppScan pros

"The best features of Invicti are its ability to confirm access vulnerabilities, SSL injection vulnerabilities, and its connectors to other security tools."

"The most valuable feature of Invicti is getting baseline scanning and incremental scan."

"Netsparker provides a more interactive interface that is more appealing."

"Its ability to crawl a web application is quite different than another similar scanner."

"The scanner is light on the network and does not impact the network when scans are running."

"I like that it's stable and technical support is great."

"The solution generates reports automatically and quickly."

"Attacking feature: Actually, attacking is not a solo feature. It contains many attack engines, Hawk, and many properties. But Netsparker's attacking mechanism is very flexible. This increases the vulnerability detection rate. Also, Netsparker made the Hawk for real-time interactive command-line-based exploit testing. It's very valuable for a vulnerability scanner."

More Invicti pros

Cons

"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 pricing has room for improvement."

"Improvement can be done as per customer requirements."

"AppScan is too complicated and should be made more user-friendly."

"They should have a better UI for dashboards."

"There is not a central management for static and dynamic."

"IBM Security AppScan Source is rather hard to use."

"The solution could improve by having a mobile version."

More HCL AppScan cons

"The proxy review, the use report views, the current use tool and the subset requests need some improvement. It was hard to understand how to use them."

"Right now, they are missing the static application security part, especially web application security."

"They could enhance the support for data swap testing for the platform."

"The scanner itself should be improved because it is a little bit slow."

"Netsparker doesn't provide the source code of the static application security testing."

"Maybe the ability to make a good reporting format is needed."

"The license could be better. It would help if they could allow us to scan multiple URLs on the same license. It's a major hindrance that we are facing while scanning applications, and we have to be sure that the URLs are the same and not different so that we do not end up consuming another license for it. Netsparker is one of the costliest products in the market. The licensing is tied to the URL, and it's restricted. If you have a URL that you scanned once, like a website, you cannot retry that same license. If you are scanning the same website but in a different domain or different URL, you might end up paying for a second license. It would also be better if they provided proper support for multi-factor authentications. In the next release, I would like them to include good multi-factor authentication support."

"The support's response time could be faster since we are in different time zones."

More Invicti cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"HCL AppScan is expensive."

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

"The solution is moderately priced."

"The product has premium pricing and could be more competitive."

"The price of HCL AppScan is okay, in my opinion. You just buy HCL AppScan and don't pay anything anymore, meaning it is just a one-time purchase."

"The tool was expensive."

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

"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."

More HCL AppScan pricing and cost advice

"It is competitive in the security market."

"We never had any issues with the licensing; the price was within our assigned limits."

"The price should be 20% lower"

"The solution is very expensive. It comes with a yearly subscription. We were paying 6000 dollars yearly for unlimited scans. We have three licenses; basic, business, and ultimate. We need ultimate because it has unlimited scan numbers."

"Netsparker is one of the costliest products in the market. It would help if they could allow us to scan multiple URLs on the same license."

"We are using an NFR license and I do not know the exact price of the NFR license. I think 20 FQDN for three years would cost around 35,000 US Dollars."

"Invicti is best suited for large enterprises. I don't think small and medium-sized businesses can afford it. Maintenance costs aren't that great."

"I think that price it too high, like other Security applications such as Acunetix, WebInspect, and so on."

More Invicti pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST) solutions are best for your needs.

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Government

10%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

17%

Computer Software Company

15%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

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

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	13
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	13

Questions from the Community

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.

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...

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...

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Netsparker Web Application Security Scanner?

As a technical user, I do not handle pricing or licensing, but I am aware that Invicti offers flexible licensing models based on organizational needs.

What do you like most about Invicti?

The most valuable feature of Invicti is getting baseline scanning and incremental scan.

What needs improvement with Invicti?

The main concern is on the performance side, but other than that, we find it really helpful in identifying web vulnerabilities. A full scan takes more time based on your website and other factors, ...

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Product Reports

HCL AppScan

Download HCL AppScan product report

Download Invicti product report

Also Known As

IBM Security AppScan, Rational AppScan, AppScan

Netsparker

Overview

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

Invicti helps DevSecOps teams automate security tasks and save hundreds of hours each month by identifying web vulnerabilities that matter. Combining dynamic with interactive testing (DAST + IAST) and software composition analysis (SCA), Invicti scans every corner of an app to find what other tools miss with 99.98% accuracy, delivering on the promise of Zero Noise AppSec. Invicti helps discover all web assets — even ones that are lost, forgotten, or created by rogue departments. With an array of out-of-the-box integrations, DevSecOps teams can get ahead of their workloads to hit critical deadlines, improve processes, and communicate more effectively while reducing risk and hitting the ROI goals.

Sample Customers

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

Samsung, The Walt Disney Company, T-Systems, ING Bank

HCL AppScan vs. Invicti