HCL AppScan vs PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional comparison

HCLSoftware and PortSwigger are both solutions in the Application Security Tools category. HCLSoftware is ranked #14 with an average rating of 8.0, while PortSwigger is ranked #10 with an average rating of 8.7. HCLSoftware holds a 2.7% mindshare in AS, compared to PortSwigger’s 2.1% mindshare. Additionally, 83% of HCLSoftware users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 98% of PortSwigger users who would recommend it.

HCL AppScan

Read 43 HCL AppScan reviews

3,673 Views
2,799 Comparison Views

83% willing to recommend

PortSwigger Burp Suite Prof...

Read 63 PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional reviews

3,091 Views
2,091 Comparison Views

98% willing to recommend

HCL AppScan

PortSwigger Burp Suite Prof...

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 8, 2024

HCL AppScan and PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional compete in application security testing. HCL AppScan appears to have the upper hand in pricing and customer support, while PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional leads in feature comprehensiveness.

Features: HCL AppScan offers automated scanning capabilities, comprehensive security coverage, and efficiency appealing to enterprises. PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional provides advanced manual testing features, customization options, and flexibility for identifying vulnerabilities.

Room for Improvement: HCL AppScan could benefit from a streamlined setup process, better integration capabilities, and improved user guidance. PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional could improve by offering more detailed documentation, a more intuitive navigation experience, and reduced complexity in features customization.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: HCL AppScan receives positive feedback for straightforward deployment in complex environments and responsive customer service. PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional is noted for deployment flexibility but has a steeper learning curve.

Pricing and ROI: HCL AppScan is valued for being cost-effective with satisfactory ROI, particularly for large-scale operations. PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional, despite a higher initial cost, delivers high ROI through in-depth testing features that justify the investment.

To learn more, read our detailed HCL AppScan vs. PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

HCL AppScan vs. PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional

April 2025

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Helped 851,604 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 Application Security Tools

14th

Ranking in Static Application Security Testing (SAST)

12th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST) (1st)

PortSwigger Burp Suite Prof...

Ranking in Application Security Tools

10th

Ranking in Static Application Security Testing (SAST)

6th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Fuzz Testing Tools (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Application Security Tools category, the mindshare of HCL AppScan is 2.7%, up from 2.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional is 2.1%, up from 2.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Security Tools

Featured Reviews

Rishi Anupam

Senior Manager at Airtel

A stable and scalable scanning solution with good reporting feature

The solution is used for the vulnerabilities scan on the network side The reporting part is the most valuable feature. The penetration testing feature should be included. I have been using the solution for four years. It is a stable solution. I rate it seven out of ten. It is a scalable…

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Anuradha.Kapoor Kapoor

Head - Quality Control at Net Solutions

Offers efficient scanning of entire websites but presence of false positive bugs, leading to time-consuming efforts in distinguishing real bugs from false alarms

We have found that so many times, false positive bugs are there, and then we spend a lot of time basically separating them from real bugs. So that's the reason we are looking for some other tool. So we were in discussion with Acunetix. Therefore, the false positive rate is, like, something that we would like to improve. What we are looking for is if this false positive rate goes down because we were OWASP Zap tool users, which was free anyway. But there were a lot of false positives there, and we used to spend a lot of time, like, for security reasons, reproducing those bugs for the development team to fix it. So then we thought, okay, why not we go with the tool? Even if it is not very expensive. But still, every year, we have to renew the license. And we got this tool. Again, we found that in this tool also, even if it is less, there are still a lot of false positive bugs out there. So we again have to spend so much time. So we hired a security tester, who was basically using Acunetix in his previous company for almost three years, and then you said that in that scanning is very slow. The scanning is also slow. Like, sometimes the site scan takes eight hours, six to eight hours. Yeah. And whereas in Acunetix, it took three to four hours. And plus, there are no false positives. I'm not saying none but there's very little. But here, the rate sometimes is very high. These are the two features I think we would like to improve further.

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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

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

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

"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."

"There's extensive functionality with custom rules and a custom knowledge base."

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

"It highlights, with several grades of severity, the types of vulnerabilities, so we can focus on the most severe security vulnerabilities in the code."

"It was easy to set up."

"It provides a better integration for our ecosystem."

More HCL AppScan pros

"The most valuable feature is Burp Collaborator."

"I personally love its capability to automatically and accurately detect vulnerabilities. So, I would say it is the Burp scanner that is THE most powerful, valuable, and an awesome feature."

"The solution scans web applications and supports APIs, which are the main features I really like."

"The automated scan is what I find most useful because a lot of customers will need it. Not every domain will be looking for complete security, they just need a stamp on the security key. For these kinds of customers, the scan works really well."

"I have found this solution has more plugins than other competitors which is a benefit. You are able to attach different plugins to the security scan to add features. For example, you can check to see if there are any payment systems that exist on a server, or username and password brute force analysis."

""The product is very good just the way it is; It has everything already well established and functions great. I can't see any way for this current version to be improved.""

"The most valuable feature is the application security. It also has a reasonable price."

"The most valuable feature of PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional is the advanced features, user-friendly interface, and integration with other tools."

More PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional pros

Cons

"The product has some technical limitations."

"AppScan needs to improve its handling of false positives."

"The solution often has a high number of false positives. It's an aspect they really need to improve upon."

"There is room for improvement in the pricing model."

"The tool should improve its output. Scanning is not a challenge anymore since there are many such tools available in the market. The product needs to focus on how its output is being used by end users. It should be also more user-friendly. One of the major challenges is in the tool's integration with applications that need to be scanned. Sometimes, the scanning is not proper."

"Many silly false positives are produced."

"Improvement can be done as per customer requirements."

"Improving usability could enhance the overall experience with AppScan. It would be beneficial to make the solution more user-friendly, ensuring that everyone can easily navigate and utilize its features."

More HCL AppScan cons

"The one feature that I would like to see in Burp is active scanning of REST based web services. A lot of organizations are providing APIs to access their services to support different business models like SaaS. Scanning these APIs is still a challenge for many security product companies."

"You can have many false positives in Burp Suite. It depends on the scale of the penetration testing."

"If your application uses multi-factor authentication, registration management cannot be automated."

"It would be good if the solution could give us more details about what exactly is defective."

"I would like to see the return of the spider mechanism instead of the crawling feature. Burp Suite's earlier version 1.7 had an excellent spider option, and it would be beneficial if Burp incorporated those features into the current version. The crawling techniques used in the current version are not as efficient as those used in earlier versions."

"Mitigating the issues and low confluence issues needs some improvement. Implementing demand with the ChatGPT under the web solution is an additional feature I would like to see in the next release."

"One area for improvement is the integrated browser, Chromium. Single Sign-On (SSO) methods like Microsoft authentication login sometimes fail and show errors. As a workaround, I have to use a different browser, such as Firefox, to log in and make Burp work."

"Scanning APIs using PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional takes a lot of time."

More PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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 has premium pricing and could be more competitive."

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

"The solution is cheap."

"The tool was expensive."

"Pricing was the main reason that we went ahead with this solution as they were the lowest in the market."

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

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

More HCL AppScan pricing and cost advice

"The yearly cost is about $300."

"The price for the solution is expensive and could be cheaper. We pay an annual license and our team has several of them."

"The pricing of the solution is reasonable. We only need to pay for the annual subscription. I rate the pricing five out of ten."

"They should reduce the license cost a little bit. It is $400 per user, and it would be better if they could reduce the licensing fee."

"It is a cheap solution, but it may not be cheaper than other solutions."

"We have one license. The price is very nominal."

"Licensing costs are about $450/year for one use. For larger organizations, they're able to test against multiple applications while simultaneously others might have multiple versions of applications which needs to be tested which is why we have the enterprise edition."

"This solution requires a license. It is expensive but you receive a lot of functionality for the price."

More PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

18%

Financial Services Firm

14%

Government

12%

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Government

12%

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

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.

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

Is OWASP Zap better than PortSwigger Burp Suite Pro?

OWASP Zap and PortSwigger Burp Suite Pro have many similar features. OWASP Zap has web application scanning available with basic security vulnerabilities while Burp Suite Pro has it available with ...

See all answers

What do you like most about PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional?

The solution helped us discover vulnerabilities in our applications.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional?

I find the price of PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional to be very cost-efficient.

See all answers

Comparisons

Acunetix vs HCL AppScan

Compared 16% of the time

SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) vs HCL AppScan

Compared 12% of the time

Veracode vs HCL AppScan

Compared 10% of the time

Fortify on Demand vs HCL AppScan

Compared 7% of the time

Checkmarx One vs HCL AppScan

Compared 6% of the time

More HCL AppScan Competitors

Acunetix vs PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional

Compared 19% of the time

Fortify WebInspect vs PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional

Compared 15% of the time

OWASP Zap vs PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional

Compared 10% of the time

SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) vs PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional

Compared 8% of the time

Rapid7 InsightAppSec vs PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional

Compared 5% of the time

More PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

HCL AppScan

May 2025

Download HCL AppScan product report

Buyer's Guide

PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional

May 2025

PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional report

Download PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional product report

Also Known As

IBM Security AppScan, Rational AppScan, AppScan

Burp

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

Burp Suite Professional, by PortSwigger, is the world’s leading toolkit for web security testing. Over 52,000 users worldwide, across all industries and organization sizes, trust Burp Suite Professional to find more vulnerabilities, faster. With expertly-engineered manual and automated tooling, you're able to test smarter - not harder.

PortSwigger is the web security company that is enabling the world to secure the web. Over 50,000 security engineers rely on our software and expertise to secure their world.

PortSwigger

Sample Customers

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

Google, Amazon, NASA, FedEx, P&G, Salesforce

Buyer's Guide

HCL AppScan vs. PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional

April 2025

Free Report: HCL AppScan vs. PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional

Find out what your peers are saying about HCL AppScan vs. PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.

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