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PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional vs w3af comparison

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Executive Summary

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

PortSwigger Burp Suite Prof...
Ranking in Application Security Tools
11th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
65
Ranking in other categories
Static Application Security Testing (SAST) (7th), Fuzz Testing Tools (1st)
w3af
Ranking in Application Security Tools
45th
Average Rating
8.0
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2026, in the Application Security Tools category, the mindshare of PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional is 3.4%, up from 2.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of w3af is 0.7%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Application Security Tools Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional3.4%
w3af0.7%
Other95.9%
Application Security Tools
 

Featured Reviews

MH
Penetration Tester & Information Security Expert at a comms service provider with 11-50 employees
Dedicated browser and repeater have improved my proxy testing and manual vulnerability checks
I'm hoping perhaps for something to make it easier, such as to define things where if a message or a response is such and such, automatically make a request that is such and such. Perhaps something like this because otherwise, nowadays we have to do it manually. Perhaps they can automate it a bit more. Perhaps they could add some automation to things, to see what we do manually, which it has the tools to do manually, and perhaps enable with a click of a button to do things automatically. I'm not too sure which, but I'm sure they can from a product management point of view, do things that we need to do two, three, or four steps manually regarding specific testing. For instance, we want to check something specific if it's this or if it's that. Perhaps to define it once and have it more automatic, perhaps.
OS
Information Security Advisor, CISO & CIO, Docutek Services at Docutek Services
It's buggy and seems to try to do too many things, but having this on a USB drive has been valuable.
I tried to install this on numerous systems and eventually, with help, I got it running. It needs far too many dependencies installed and there's too much messing about to be of much use. Once running, it's buggy and begs the question can it be relied upon? Even within Kali it reports website time-outs, yet Zap or Burp are able to do a successful scan. I wanted this to work so much and be able to use it as an additional check of my results but have now binned it.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I rate PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional ten points out of ten."
"PortSwigger Burp Suite does not hamper the node of the server, and it does not shut down the server if it is running."
"This solution provides a very good mechanism for fixing interval time; for example, we can create a schedule, and the schedule runs on time, PortSwigger Burp Suite does not hamper the node of the server and does not shut down the server if it is running, it is quite fast and easy to install as well, and it is also a budget-friendly tool."
"I am impressed with the tool's detailed analysis for penetration testing. AppScan can give only visibility, but it can't do the PT part. But the PortSwigger Burp Application can do both, and it gives much more visibility on the PT rating."
"The most valuable feature of PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional is the advanced features, user-friendly interface, and integration with other tools."
"Burp Suite gives you a very good automated scanning tool, which gives you around sixty to seventy percent security coverage without having to use a security resource."
"This tool is more accurate than the other solutions that we use, and reports fewer false positives."
"It is useful for scanning and tracing activities."
"The best free software for pen testing web applications."
 

Cons

"One thing that is not up to the mark in PortSwigger is web application testing. I found some issues with its performance and reporting. They should work on these and give us a better outcome."
"The solution isn't too stable; the fundamentals of it make it difficult to use."
"BurpSuite has some issues regarding authentication with OAT tokens that need to be improved."
"If we're running a huge number of scans regularly, it slows down the tool."
"As with most automated security tools, there is still a high false positive issue."
"In the Professional version, we cannot link it with the CI/CD process."
"PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional could improve the static code review."
"The reporting needs to be improved; it is very bad."
"Unfortunately, once you get around the seemingly strict set of pre-requisites to install it, it is incredibly buggy."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Our licensing cost is approximately $400 USD per year."
"It is a cheap solution, but it may not be cheaper than other solutions."
"It's a lower priced tool that we can rely on with good standard mechanisms."
"The solution used to be expensive. However, they have reduced the price to approximately $400.00 which is reasonable."
"This solution requires a license. It is expensive but you receive a lot of functionality for the price."
"At $400 or $500 per license paid annually, it is a very cheap tool."
"It is expensive for us in Brazil because the currency exchange rate from a dollar to a Brazilian Real is quite steep."
"There are different licenses available that include a free version."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Government
7%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business17
Midsize Enterprise14
Large Enterprise35
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

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 ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional?
The cost of PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional is reasonable at approximately $500 per year per user.
What needs improvement with PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional?
I'm hoping perhaps for something to make it easier, such as to define things where if a message or a response is such and such, automatically make a request that is such and such. Perhaps something...
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Also Known As

Burp
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Overview

 

Sample Customers

Google, Amazon, NASA, FedEx, P&G, Salesforce
Information Not Available
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