10 Top Application Security Testing Tools of 2023 [Reviewed]

Application security testing or AST is the process of scanning applications for security loopholes, misconfigurations, and vulnerabilities. It is an integral part of the application development cycle. AST can be performed at any point during the development of an app as well as after it is developed.

Different types of application security testing tools are used depending on when the application is being tested and which aspects of the application are being tested.

List Of Best Application Security Testing Tools

1. Astra’s Pentest
2. Veracode
3. Checkmarx SAST
4. Acunetix
5. Nikto
6. InsightAppSec
7. Metasploit
8. Cobalt.io
9. OWASP ZAP
10. Indusface WAS

Why Astra is the best in pentesting?

• We’re the only company that combines automated & manual pentest to create a one-of-a-kind pentest platform
• Vetted scans ensure zero false positives
• Our intelligent vulnerability scanner emulates hacker behavior & evolves with every pentest
• Astra’s scanner helps you shift left by integrating with your CI/CD
• Our platform helps you uncover, manage & fix vulnerabilities in one place
• Trusted by the brands you trust like Agora, Spicejet, Muthoot, Dream11, etc.

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Why Application Security Testing Tools Are Essential

As we have already mentioned, the speed of software development in today’s world is pretty hard to handle. If you removed the modern application security testing tools from the equation, either the evolution of applications would come to a standstill, or we will have fantastic apps laden with security errors. Here are the specific reasons why businesses need AST tools.

1. Speed of testing

Traditional code reviews and test plans are too slow to fit into the DevSecOps model of application development. You need tools that are designed for speed and scalability.

2. Continuous testing

You need a security testing workflow in place that is constantly at work to test new features that you launch. It should also stay up to date with emerging CVEs. 

3. Triage and classification of vulnerabilities

Not having a tool to help you prioritize and fix the vulnerabilities can mean two things. One, you would spend a ton of human hours to find and authenticate vulnerabilities, two, you will leave them as they are for longer than you should, and suffer the consequences.

4. The remediation workflow

Application security demands special skill sets that are rarely found in developers. When you use an AST tool that offers remediation assistance, your developers get to pick the brains of experienced security experts. It will save you a lot of time and effort. 

Comparison Table of Application security testing tools

Types of Application Security Testing Tools

If you have looked at the table of application security testing tools, you must have noticed that we have categorized them as DAST, SAST, or in some cases SCA tools. In this section, we will learn about the different classes of AppSec testing.

SAST

SAST stands for Static Application Security Testing. It is quite similar to white-box testing. The SAST tools have an architecture diagram and access to source code. These tools are used to examine the source code while the application is at rest. SAST can detect numerical errors, defects in input validation, path traversal vulnerabilities, etc.

DAST

DAST or Dynamic Application Security Testing closely resembles black-box security testing. DAST is used to detect security vulnerabilities in an application at its production level. It detects issues related to interfaces, requests, responses, injection, authentication, and scripting while running on code that is operational. 

Software Composition Analysis (SCA)

SCA tools are used to find errors in different components of the software. They compare known modules found in code with a database of vulnerabilities. These tests detect vulnerabilities in different components and libraries used to keep an application functional and suggest available patches.

Database security scanning

Applications are heavily dependent on databases. Hence, database security is a part of overall application security. Database security scanning is used to detect vulnerabilities in database management systems – outdated versions, patch requirements, misconfigurations, etc. 

IAST

IAST stands for Interactive Application Security Testing. IAST tools use a combination of SAST and DAST techniques to perform both static code analysis and vulnerability detection on a running application.

MAST

Mobile Application Security Testing or MAST combines DAST, SAST, and digital forensics to test applications for mobile-specific issues like improper platform usage, jailbreaking, code tampering, reverse engineering, data leakage, etc. 

ASTaaS

Application Security Testing as a Service is simply when you pay a vendor to perform application security testing on your web or mobile application. 

Correlation Tools

As the name suggests, correlation tools help you correlate findings from different AST tools to reduce the noise from false positives and validate and prioritize critical vulnerabilities.

Test-coverage analyzers

These are tools used to determine what percentage of an application’s code is tested. This is useful in two ways. One, it helps an organization understand the efficiency of their AST process, and if they are running behind, they can try to optimize and accelerate the process. Two, it can identify lines of code that the SAST tools might fail to reach. The organization can recognize this problem and take measures. 

ASTO

ASTO stands for Application Security Testing Orchestration. These application security testing tools coordinate the different AST tools operating at different stages of the software development life cycle and help the users achieve a single source of truth.

Top 10 Application Security Testing Tools

By now, you know about all the different classes of AST tools and processes. You have probably also figured out what kind of tools your organization needs. In this section we will learn about the six application security testing tools from the table you found earlier in a little more detail.

Astra’s Pentest

Features

• Platform: Online 
• Scanner Capacity: Unlimited continuous scans
• Manual pentest: Available for web app, mobile app, APIs, and cloud infrastructures
• Accuracy: Zero false positives
• Vulnerability management: Comes with dynamic vulnerability management dashboard 
• Compliance: Helps you stay compliant with PCI-DSS, HIPAA, ISO27001, and SOC2
• Price: $199/month

Astra Security has created tailor-made AppSec testing solutions for web apps built on a wide range of different platforms. The DAST tool by Astra can be optimized for different technologies. The tool fits into the CI/CD pipeline and it is extremely easy to set it up for continuous scanning.

Detailed Review 

Astra Pentest Platform is a unique penetration testing suite that combines the Astra Vulnerability Scanner with manual pentesting capabilities. 
It comes as a plug-n-play SaaS tool that one can start using just by providing the target site URLs and some credentials. 
The company’s efforts towards making the penetration testing platform self-serving are constant and yet they offer 24/7 chat support.
Astra has made visualizing, navigating, and remediating vulnerabilities as simple as running a search on Google.

Astra Vulnerability Scanner

The pentest software can also run 3500+ tests covering OWASP top 10 and SANS 25 vulnerabilities. The scan results are vetted by experts to ensure zero false positives. 

Thanks to Astra’s login recorder plugin, the scanner can run authenticated scans behind login pages without requiring you to reauthenticate it.

The vulnerability management dashboard allows you to stay on top of the vulnerabilities throughout the scanning and remediation process.

Astra Pentest

The in-depth hacker-style penetration testing by experts reveals business logic errors and other critical vulnerabilities like payment gateway hacks.

Astra Pentest Platform can be used for web app pentest, mobile app pentest, API pentest, and cloud-configuration reviews.

Pentest Reports

The pentest reports by Astra feature video PoCs and step-by-step remediation guidelines to help you take immediate action. The best part is, your developers can engage in contextual collaboration with Astra’s security engineers to resolve difficult issues.

Pentest Certificate

Once the vulnerabilities detected by Astra Pentest are remediated and the same is confirmed by Astra’s security experts, you get a publicly verifiable pentest certificate that stays valid for 6 months or your next major code update, whichever is earlier.

Over the past year, Astra has added names like ICICI, UN, and Dream 11, to their already impressive roster of clients which included Ford, Gillette, and GoDaddy, among others.

Who is it for?
SaaS providers, ECommerce site owners, and public offices, across regions and industries.

What is best?

• Connects with your CI/CD pipeline
• Offers continuous scanning with regularly updated scanner rules
• Ensures zero false positives
• Helps with rapid prioritization and remediation of vulnerabilities

What could have been better?

• Could have had more integration options
• It doesn’t offer a free trial

Verdict 
Astra Security essentially replaces 3 services with one platform – a vulnerability scanner, manual pentest, and vulnerability management. On top of that, security experts go the extra mile to help you remediate issues quickly. It is like having a security team of your own. Also, full points for 24/7 chat support and customer service. Overall, it’s an incredible application penetration testing tool in any price range. 

Veracode

Features: 

• Scanner Capacity: Web applications
• Manual Pentest: Yes
• Accuracy: False positives possible
• Scan Behind Logins: Yes
• Vulnerability Management: Yes
• Compliance: NIST, PCI, OWASP, HIPAA, GDPR
• Price: Quote upon request

Veracode is a major player in the Application Security Testing business and it offers three types of security testing – SAST, DAST, and Software composition analysis.

This tool is designed to cope with the speed of development that comes with DevOps. It allows you to scan hundreds of apps and APIs simultaneously. It’s a perfect solution for large enterprises.

• You get a less than 5% rate of false positives with Veracode
• You can find vulnerabilities in a running application
• The scan parameters are flexible
• You can use the interface to monitor scan results while other scans are running.

Who is it for?

Any large organizations in need of application testing.

What is best?

• Offers DAST, SAST, and penetration testing services.
• Provides detailed and comprehensive reports.
• Provides automated remediation assistance.

What could be better?

• Zero false positives are not assured. 
• Could improve its user interface 
• Can be difficult for beginners. 

Verdict

Veracode implements different types of AST to create a wholesome AppSec testing experience. It also offers security training for developers. They ensure that your developers can keep the AppSec programs up and running.

Checkmarx SAST

Features: 

• Scanner Capacity: Web applications
• Manual Pentest: No
• Accuracy: False positives possible
• Scan Behind Logins: No
• Vulnerability Management: No  
• Compliance: PCI-DSS, ISO27001
• Price: Quote on request

Checkmarx is an enterprise-grade software exposure tool used by over 14000 organizations worldwide including government bodies. 

This SAST tool helps your developers accelerate their work in terms of finding and fixing vulnerabilities. They provide security scanning for your code and produce accurate insights.

Some key features

• Scans across 25+ development frameworks
• Interactive AppSec training for developers
• Scalability is suitable for enterprise-level security testing. 
• Scopes for collaboration

They have put solid research behind the product and have a pool of experienced security and technology professionals backing their services up. 

Checkmarx provides DAST, SAST, SCA, IAST, and IAC solutions. 

Who is it for?

The tool is ideal for anyone requiring various solutions such as DAST, SAST, or IAST.

What is best?

• Can test for a wide range of security risks and is very integrated with GitHub Actions. 
• Scanner uses a configuration file so the users can easily customize the scanner based on the use case. 
• Provides detailed well-structured reports

What could be better?

• Scans take time
• False positives possible

Verdict

The tool is perfect for seamless integration into the CI/CD pipeline however, scans conducted can take time and false positives may be present.

Acunetix

Features: 

• Platform: Windows, macOS
• Scanner Capacity: Web applications
• Manual pentest: No
• Accuracy: False positives possible
• Vulnerability management: Yes
• Compliance: OWASP, ISO 27001, PCI-DSS, NIST
• Price: $4,495/website

Acunetix is a popular web application security testing tool with a strong vulnerability scanner. The application security testing tool offers a 360-degree view of an organization’s security posture. The plug-and-play vulnerability scanner is quite useful for application scanning. 

It also allows the scanning of multiple environments as well as the prioritization of vulnerabilities. Its key features include the ability to pinpoint vulnerability locations, and optimization for script-heavy sites among others. Acunetix is a good choice among the best pentest tools for Windows. 

One of the best parts of its service offerings is that it shows you the exact lines of code that need to be fixed in order to get rid of a vulnerability.

Other key features include the detection of misconfigurations and out-of-band vulnerabilities and the production of scan results at a brisk speed.

Who is it for?
Large organizations in any industry.
What is better?

• Time release of updates
• Can find a wide array of vulnerabilities.
• Agile testing with detailed reports

What could be better?

• Does not provide expert remediation assistance with professionals.
• Does not ensure zero false positives.
• Pricing is not mentioned.
• Dated user interface with scope for improvement.

Verdict
Acunetix is a very scalable solution that is ideal for large organizations owing to its quick and accurate scans and pentests. 

Nikto

Features: 

• Scanner Capacity: Web server scans
• Manual Pentest: No
• Accuracy: False positives possible
• Scan Behind Logins: Yes
• Vulnerability Management:  No
• Compliance: No
• Price: Open-Source (GPL)

Another winner among free DAST tools is Nikto an open-source web server scanner that performs comprehensive tests against web servers for multiple items. 

This includes over 6700 potentially dangerous files/programs, checks for outdated server versions, and version-specific problems on over 270 server versions. 

Server versions like Apache, MySQL, FTP, ProFTPd, Courier, Netscape, iPlanet, Lotus, BIND, MyDoom, and more. 

Key features include scans for 6000+ vulnerabilities and the detection of version-specific problems. 

Who is it for?

Mid-sized companies, security testing beginners who want to learn more about SQL injection execution. 

What is best?

• Checks for 6000+ vulnerabilities
• Detects version-specific problems

What could be better?

• False positives are present.
• The tool is resource intensive and can result in slow scans
• Limited reporting capacities. 
• Lacks customer support. 

Verdict

Nikto is a must-have with its extensive vulnerability detection for various server-specific flaws.

Rapid7 InsightAppSec

Features: 

• Platform: Linux, Windows, macOS
• Scanner Capacity: Cloud and Web Applications
• Manual pentest: Yes
• Accuracy: False positives possible
• Vulnerability management: Yes
• Compliance: CIS, ISO 27001
• Price: $175/month

InsightAppSec is the application security testing tool by Rapid 7. It offers scalable security scanning solutions with a bunch of interesting features. It is definitely one of the top application security testing tools out there.

Features include cloud and on-premise scan engines, 95+ attack types, compliance reporting, scan scheduling, and automatic crawling of web applications to detect SQLi and XSS.

They collaborate with the global security community to bring about better, more prolific security solutions, faster. Their services include detection and response, security scanning, and vulnerability management.

Who is it for?
Security teams of large organizations and other organizations in need of penetration testing services. 

What is best?

• Great for finding hidden vulnerabilities
• They maintain top-notch threat intelligence
• Scalable security solution.

What could be better?

• Users have reported issues with functionality and customer support
• The devices that are scanned have to be removed manually

Verdict
Rapid7’s pentesting services are just the icing on the cake along with its vulnerability management services. They have a great threat intelligence program. 

Metasploit

Features

• Platform: Unix (including Linux and MacOS), Windows
• Scanner Capacity: N/A
• Manual pentest: Metasploit contains an assortment of tools that can be used for pentesting
• Accuracy: N/A
• Vulnerability management: No
• Compliance: Indirectly relates to compliance reporting 
• Price: Free

Metasploit is a framework used by both hackers and security professionals to detect systematic vulnerabilities. It is a powerful tool that also contains portions of fuzzing, anti-forensic, and evasion tools.

Metasploit is easy to install, works on a range of platforms and is quite popular among hackers. That is part of the reason why it is an important tool for pentesters as well.

Metasploit currently includes nearly 1677 exploits along with almost 500 payloads that include Command shell payloads, Dynamic payloads, Meterpreter payloads, and Static payloads.

Who is it for?
Ethical hackers, pentesters, and malicious actors.

What is best?

• It is a powerful framework.
• An assortment of penetration testing capabilities.

What could have been better?

• Has a steep learning curve
• Used by hackers 

Verdict 
With listeners, encoders, and post-exploit code, Metasploit is a very powerful tool for ethical hacking.

Cobalt.io

Features: 

• Platform: Linux, Windows
• Scanner Capacity: Web and mobile applications, APIs, Networks, and Cloud
• Manual pentest: Yes
• Accuracy: False positives possible
• Vulnerability management: Yes
• Compliance: SOC2, PCI-DSS, HIPAA, CREST 
• Price: $ 1650/Credit (8 pentesting hours)

Cobalt.io is one of the top manual penetration testing tools that help you connect with pen-testers according to your security testing needs. They have programs that allow you to get a pentest done in a short time. 

This tool is automated and generally availed for web applications. It provides management service for an organization’s infrastructure.

Cobalt’s SaaS platform helps you gather real-time insights so that your teams can get on with the remediation quickly. It helps you with cloud scanning and other forms of pentesting.

Who is it for?
Pen testers, SaaS application providers, and other cybersecurity professionals. 

What is best?

• Impressive existing clientele including Nissan and Vodafone.
• 14-day trial period.
• Accelerated find to fix cycles

What could be better?

• The retest often takes too much time
• Complex pricing structure
• Reported false positives

Verdict
Cobalt is the ideal tool for manual penetration testing services, it also comes with a 14-day trial period for its automated scanning and pentest services. 

OWASP ZAP

Features: 

• Platform: Windows, Linux, MacOS
• Scanner Capacity: Web application security testing, network ports, and API testing
• Manual pentest: Yes (Used by experts to carry it out) 
• Accuracy: False positives possible
• Vulnerability management: No 
• Compliance: OWASP
• Price: Open-source

Zed Attack Proxy or else known as ZAP is an open-source penetration testing software offered by OWASP that can detect a variety of vulnerabilities within web apps.

It can be used for Linux, Microsoft, and Mac systems to run penetration tests on web apps to detect a variety of flaws.

One of the best open-source penetration testing tools out there, ZAP supports a lot of pentesting activities that make it ideal for users.

Who is it for?
Ethical hackers, cybersecurity professionals 

What is best?

• Easy-to-navigate user interface
• Maintained by OWASP and is freely available.
• Easy to learn.
• Eligible for beginner and security experts alike.

What could be better?

• Hard to set up the tool.
• Not convenient compared to other tools.
• Some features require extra plugins.

Verdict
ZAP by OWASP was built specifically with web application vulnerability detection in mind. This makes it an excellent choice for open-source web application pentesting. 

Indusface WAS

Features:

• Scanner Capabilities: Web and mobile applications, APIs
• Accuracy: Zero false positives 
• Scan Behind Logins: Yes
• Compliance: PCI-DSS, ISO 27001
• Integrations: Splunk, IBM, Imperva
• Expert Remediation: Yes
• Pricing: $ 199/app/month – yearly

Indusface combines automated scanning and manual pentesting to help you detect all OWASP top 10 vulnerabilities and business logic errors and also promises zero false positives, and provides remediation assistance.

The scanner built by Indusface is focused on scanning single-page applications and they offer intelligent crawling.

Who is it for?

Large or medium to smaller organizations that are in need of application testing services.

What is best?

• Assured zero false positives through zero-day protection. 
• Helps achieve compliance with regulations like PCI-DSS and ISO 27001. 
• Vulnerability detection is not limited to OWASP Top 10. 
• It has an executive dashboard that provides necessary information.

What could be better?

• Reports are difficult to understand.

Verdict

This application security tool is ideal for SMEs looking to scan the security of their applications for an in-depth analysis of vulnerabilities of all ranges from critical to low.

Conclusion

Application security testing tools are available in abundance for different types of applications and test stages. It falls on you to choose the tool or tools that fit your purpose. Make sure that you find a tool that does not slow you down in any way. DAST tools like Astra’s Pentest can be a game changer in this respect with its smooth integration with your CI/CD pipeline, video PoCs, remediation assistance, and a solid vulnerability management dashboard. 

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