Security testing often becomes fragmented as systems scale and APIs multiply across platforms. Different teams use different tools, leading to inconsistent vulnerability identification and patching. This fragmentation creates gaps in security, leaving organizations vulnerable to increasingly sophisticated API attacks.
Moreover with nearly 80% of IT administrators desiring more authority over API security testing or penetration testing tools – the real challenge isn’t just finding vulnerabilities in individual APIs but ensuring comprehensive coverage across all endpoints in an increasingly complex ecosystem that is accessible to dev teams and CXOs.
In 2025, the solution lies in unifying your testing efforts with the right tools. In this article, we’ll explore the best API security testing tools that help streamline workflows, eliminate gaps, and give your security teams the integrated, proactive approach needed to stay ahead of evolving threats.
What is API Security Testing?
API security testing, also called API penetration testing, evaluates the security of an application’s APIs and the systems they interact with. This process identifies and combats vulnerabilities like injection attacks, unauthorized access, data breaches, and other security risks that could compromise the API’s integrity and the data it handles.
Top 10 API Security (Penetration) Testing Tools
- Astra API Pentest
- Probely
- FireTail
- APISec
- Akto (Open Source Option Available)
- ZAP (Open Source)
- Burp Suite Community Edition
- Acunetix
- Invicti
- 42Crunch
Why Astra is the best in API Pentesting?
- We’re the only company that combines artificial intelligence & manual pentest to create a one-of-a-kind pentest platform.
- Runs 120+ test cases based on industrial standards.
- Integrates with your CI/CD tools to help you establish DevSecOps.
- A dynamic vulnerability management dashboard to manage, monitor, and assess APIs your web app consumes.
- Conduct 2 rescans in 60 days to verify patches.
- Award publicly verifiable pentest certificates which you can share with your users.
- Helps you stay compliant with SOC2, ISO27001, PCI-DSS, HIPAA, etc.
- Trusted by the brands you trust like Agora, Spicejet, Muthoot, Dream11, etc.
Comparing The Top 3 API (Security) Penetration Testing Tools Worldwide In 2025
| Features | Astra API Pentest | Probely | Akto |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pentest Capabilities | Run 9300+ tests to uncover API vulnerabilities | Credit-based vulnerability scanner for APIs to detect 100+ bug types | Instant API penetration testing scanner with 150+ built-in test cases |
| API Vulnerability Scanner | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Access Control Scanning | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Compliance Scanning | GDPR, ISO 27001, SOC2, PCI-DSS, Owasp Top 10 API, and HIPAA | GDPR, ISO 27001, PCI-DSS, Owasp Top 10 API, and HIPAA | Owasp Top 10 API |
| Pentest Reports | Yes | Yes | No |
| Publicly Verifiable Certificates | Yes | No | No |
| Workflow Integrations | Slack, GitLab, GitHub, Jira, Jenkins, and more | Slack, Jira, Azure DevOps, and more | Burp, Postman, and Har |
| Expert Remediation | Yes | Yes | No |
| Pricing Plan | Starts at $1999/yr | Open source with paid plans starting at $1,180/yr | Open-source |
Evaluation Criteria:
When evaluating API security tools, we focused on what truly matters for today’s dynamic threat landscape. As such, compliance alignment was prioritized for actionable insights, not just checkboxes.
Pentesting capacity and scalability were also key considerations, ensuring depth and accessibility for teams of all sizes.
10 Best API Security (Penetration) Testing Tools (2025)
1. Astra API Pentest
Key Features:
- Pentest Capacity: Run 10,000+ tests to uncover vulnerabilities with expert manual pentesting
- API Vulnerability Scanner: Yes
- Access Control Scanning: Yes
- Compliance: GDPR, ISO 27001, SOC2, PCI-DSS, and HIPAA
- Price: Starts at $1999 per annum
- Best Suited For: Holistic API pentesting services
Astra Security is one of the best API penetration testing tools, and it combines continuous automated API penetration testing with AI-powered test cases and manual vetting. We run 9300+ tests to map all endpoints and ensure holistic security.
With customers across various industries and countries, our industry-specific AI test cases, seamless tech stack integrations, and personalized reports guarantee a smooth experience while saving you millions of dollars proactively.
With automatic API detection (with manual spec file uploading options), a formidable GPT-powered chatbot, and quick expert support, we strive to make API security solutions simple, effective, and hassle-free.
Pros:
- Automate API discovery
- Seamlessly integrates with your CI/CD pipeline.
- Generate compliance-specific reports
- Comprehensive scanning and pentesting process.
Limitations:
- Only 1-week trial, available at $7.
Experts Review
What our Customers Have to Say?
“I have recently started using this product, and I must say, I am quite amazed by its features. The smart intelligent scaling is something that saves a lot of time for my team. It tells me exactly what I need to solve first in my API vulnerability report, thus making the work very productive.” – Software Developer (Source: Gartner)
Astra Pentest is built by the team of experts that helped secure Microsoft, Adobe, Facebook, and Buffer
2. Probely
Key Features
- Pentest Capacity: Credit-based vulnerability scanner for APIs to detect 100+ bug types
- API Vulnerability Scanner: Yes
- Access Control Scanning: No
- Compliance: GDPR, ISO 27001, PCI-DSS, and HIPAA
- Price: Starts at $1180 per annum
- Best Suited For: Automated API penetration testing services
As an automated API penetration scanning tool, Probely helps automate and scale API penetration testing g abilities. Its simple UI and seamless CI/CD pipeline integration offer comprehensive testing opportunities even in its open-source plan.
Probely has earned a name through its API-first approach to maximize security with dynamic authentication support.
Pros:
- Offers a generous free security testing plan for APIs
- User-friendly interface
Limitations:
- Limited customization options for advanced testing
- No manual pentesting or vetting is available
Experts Review
What do Customers Have to Say?
“Web url and API vulnerability scanner on another level. Provides reports on zero day exploit on web url ,API’s and SQL injections that would harm our applications that are accesed over web preventing further losses from attacks.” – John D., Enterprise (Source: G2)
3. FireTail
Key Features:
- Pentest Capacity: Subscription-based automated pentester for APIs
- API Vulnerability Scanner: Yes
- Access Control Scanning: No
- Compliance: GDPR, HIPAA, and SOC 2
- Price: Enterprise plan at $48,000 per annum
- Best Suited For: Bug-bounty API penetration researchers
Built on modern API standards, FireTail aims to offer a one-stop API penetration test solution to identify, analyze, and secure sensitive data across all APIs. It offers multiple features, such as PII scrubbing, response validation, and sanitization.
Firetail’s triggers allow for highly personalized and automated notifications. They offer integrations with email, messaging, ticketing, and SIEM platforms.
Pros:
- Easy to set up
- Comprehensive open-source resource repository
Limitations:
- The enterprise version can be a bit expensive
Experts Review
What do Customers Have to Say?
“Full API Visibility. It provides very stable security functionality capable of keeping the entire system in constant protection and visibility from the cloud of each of the applications to have a wide range of security visualization. When attackers try to enter the system, FireTail issues accurate and immediate alerts to prevent the system from being exposed.”- Owen C., Software Developer (Source: G2)
4. APISec
Key Features:
- Pentest Capacity: Subscription-based scanner for APIs with 100+ test categories
- API Vulnerability Scanner: Yes
- Access Control Scanning: Yes
- Compliance: PCI, SOC 2, and CCPA
- Price: Starting at $500/month
- Best Suited For: Continuous API penetration testing services
As a popular API vulnerability scanning tool, APISec combines automated and AI-powered penetration testing to offer continuous security capabilities. The platform generates and runs customized attack vectors based on the unique structure of each API.
Its quick turnaround time on API scans and easy navigation offers a smooth experience. Efficient customer success executives also help improve the user experience.
Pros:
- Expert assistance to customers.
- Easy to navigate
Limitations:
- High alert fatigue due to false positive
- Limited customization toggles due to automation.
Experts Review
What do Customers Have to Say?
“APISec has transformed our approach to API security. Our company is very invested in maintaining robust cyber security practices and APISec has made that a total game changer.”- IT Security and Risk Manager (Source: Gartner)
5. Akto (Open-Source)
Key Features:
- Pentest Capacity: Instant API penetration testing scanner with 150+ built-in test cases
- API Vulnerability Scanner: Yes
- Access Control Scanning: Yes
- Compliance: Owasp Top 10 API
- Price: Open-source
- Best Suited For: Open-source API penetration testing
With 100+ built-in tests, Akto is a leading open-source API pentesting tool that offers API discovery and automated testing facilities. Fueled by traffic data analysis, the platform runs several business logic tests to identify OWASP and HackerOne’s Top 10 bugs.
Akto’s frictionless integration with Burpsuite, AWS, postman, GCP, gateways, and simple navigation capabilities make it an ideal choice for startups and SMEs.
Pros:
- Create custom test cases
- Simple integration extensions to facilitate team and task management
Limitations:
- Documentation for Akto is a little thin
- Some features are not available in the open-source plan
Experts Review
What do Customers Have to Say?
“The simplicity and the easy-going dashboard really helps in building up your pace to interact with the application’s logic quite quickly. It’s intutive in nature.”- Saurabh J. Product Security Engineer (Source: G2)
6. ZAP (Open-Source)
Key Features:
- Pentest Capacity: Continuous API penetration testing tool with customization options
- API Vulnerability Scanner: Yes
- Access Control Scanning: Yes
- Compliance: No
- Price: Open-source
- Best Suited For: Open-source API penetration testing
ZAP or Zed Attack Proxy is an open-source automated API pentesting tool that allows security analysts to automate and fine-tune security regression pentesting of the application in the CI/CD pipeline.
The platform offers continuous crawling and vulnerability scanning services for APIs defined by OpenAPI, SOAP, or GraphQL with active and passive scans.
Pros:
- Supports multiple languages
- User-friendly interface, especially for beginners
Limitations:
- Not reliable for detecting application logic errors
Experts Review
What do Customers Have to Say?
“Support for Active, Passive and Fuzzy scans via Desktop app as well as it can be used via API bindings which can be further integrated in pipelines and can be scheduled as required.”- Verified User in Computer Software (Source: G2)
7. Burp Suite Community Edition
Key Features:
- Pentest Capacity: Automated API security testing tool with a manual pentest toolbox
- API Vulnerability Scanner: Yes
- Access Control Scanning: Yes
- Compliance: GDPR, HIPAA, and PCI DSS
- Price: Open-source
- Best Suited For: Open-source API pentesting
As a comprehensive API penetration testing tool kit, Burp Suite is the ideal choice for security analysts to design and run manual security tests on endpoints. It can be pre-configured and embedded in the Chromium browser to crawl and audit APIs.
With a strong community support approach, it is the go-to tool for developers. However, the advanced understanding of coding makes it inaccessible to nontechnical personnel.
Pros:
- Can carry out performance tests for both static and dynamic resources
- Open-source with strong community support
Limitations:
- Burp Crawler occasionally misses out on end-points
- Not reliable for scanning logically dependent APIs
Experts Review
What do Customers Have to Say?
“This is a very good tool for security professionals and penetration testers. This tool is very useful while working with different types of applications including web, API, mobile, thick/thin clients. This tool combines a comprehensive suite of tools which helps for testing.”- IT Security and Risk Manager (Source: Gartner)
8. Acunetix
Key Features:
- Pentest Capacity: Comprehensive vulnerability scanning and penetration testing.
- API Vulnerability Scanner: Yes
- Access Control Scanning: Yes
- Compliance: PCI DSS, HIPAA, GDPR, and others.
- Price: $1958/yr (Vulnerability Scanning only. Pentest pricing available on demand)
- Best Suited For: Organizations seeking a comprehensive web application and API pentest solution
As a dedicated API security scanner with advanced features, Acunetix automates the process as much as possible. It scans your applications for over 4,500 vulnerabilities, including common threats like SQL and XSS injections.
Acunetix offers simple workflow integrations and detailed reports with proof-of-concept examples to help improve the efficiency of an enterprise’s remediation efforts.
Pros:
- Intelligent automated scanning tool
- Easy to navigate and learn
Limitations:
- Limitations in vulnerability detection as specific bugs need manual insight.
- Can generate false positives.
Experts Review
What do Customers Have to Say?
“Integration into Development workflows, broad api vulnerability coverage, automated and proof based scans and ease of use and implementaion with good UI.”- IT Deepesh V., Small Business (Source: G2)
9. Invicti
Key Features:
- Pentest Capacity: Automated and manual penetration testing for web applications and APIs.
- API Vulnerability Scanner: Yes
- Access Control Scanning: Yes
- Compliance: PCI DSS, HIPAA, GDPR, and others.
- Price: Available on quote
- Best Suited For: Security teams looking for a flexible and scalable solution.
Invicti is a leading web application security scanner with advanced API security testing features. It can identify REST, SOAP, GraphQL, and other API types of vulnerabilities. Invicti also provides interactive scanning, vulnerability management, and compliance reporting.
Pros:
- Offers both automated and manual scanning options.
- Active community and frequent updates.
Limitations:
- Commercial licenses can be costly for smaller organizations.
- Requires advanced configuration for complex scenarios.
Experts Review
What do Customers Have to Say?
“User friendly API testing. It is very user friendly and gives you detailed view of the API requests and the response forms and vulnerabilities.”- Dhanarjun M, Senior Engineer (Source: G2)
10. 42Crunch
Key Features:
- Pentest Capacity: API security testing, vulnerability scanning, and penetration testing.
- API Vulnerability Scanner: Yes
- Access Control Scanning: Yes
- Compliance: PCI DSS, HIPAA, GDPR, and others.
- Price: Available on quote
- Best Suited For: Organizations with complex API architectures.
42Crunch is a specialized API security testing tool that identifies and mitigates API-specific vulnerabilities. It offers advanced features like interactive testing, automated vulnerability scanning, and compliance reporting. 42Crunch also provides integration with CI/CD pipelines for continuous security testing.
Pros:
- Designed explicitly for API security testing.
- Offers advanced features like interactive testing and API fuzzing.
Limitations:
- Not as comprehensive as general-purpose web application security scanners.
- Requires specialized knowledge to use effectively.
Experts Review
What do Customers Have to Say?
“Overall the folks at 42Crunch have been an absolute pleasure to work with. We’ve been very happy with their availability, the drive to help us succeed and the flexibility in helping us build out our solution.”- Research and Developer (Source: Gartner)
Features of a Good API Security (Pentesting) Tool
1. Test for OWASP API Top 10, Known CVEs & Beyond
Prioritize API penetration testing tools that test for known, emerging, and new CVEs, aka zero-day vulnerabilities. The ideal tool has access to an extensive database of known CVEs, such as OWASP, CIS, and CERT, along with built-in threat intelligence capabilities.
A. Identify Business Logic Errors
Automated scans miss hidden business logic vulnerabilities. Look for tools that analyze API logic, injection flaws, and data flows to model potential bugs and attack paths within business logic and workflows. Pair them with expert “hacker-style” API Pentest by security experts.
B. Detect Identity Access Management (IAM) & Broken Authentication Flaws
IAM flaws risk data breaches and account takeovers. Prioritize API pentest tools that combine AI and manual testing to pinpoint insecure password storage, broken authentication, and access management issues.
C. Broken Access Control Scanning
False positive fatigue can make broken access control scans (BAC) difficult. Your API pentesting platform should offer BAC scanning to identify vulnerabilities that allow unauthorized access, including privilege escalation attacks, without triggering the above.
2. Comprehensive API Vulnerability Scanning
APIs are ever-evolving and dynamic. Since the API penetration test is a point-in-time exercise, the ideal API Pentest Platform includes continuous vulnerability scanning features. This will ensure that as your APIs evolve, they’re continuously being tested for vulnerabilities.
A. Support for Key API Specification Formats
Every organization uses various formats of API specification files, from OpenAPI (formerly known as Swagger) and RAML to API Blueprint, Postman Collection, or something else. Choose an API vulnerability scanning tool that provides native support for your format.
B. Scanning Authenticated APIs:
Not every API is open to the public, and not every API vulnerability scanner supports scanning for authentication-enabled APIs. The best API pentest scanning tool automatically authenticates and scans your APIs after one-time authentication details are provided to it.
C. Discovering & Scanning Undocumented Shadow APIs
Developers often build APIs without documenting them, creating “shadow APIs” often missed by automated API pentesters. A comprehensive pentest scouts for such un-documented shadow APIs during the reconnaissance phase and includes them in the pentest scope.
3. Compliance Scanning
Compliance regulations (SOC 2, HIPAA, ISO 27001, and GDPR) of digital assets are often jargon-heavy. Prioritize API penetration testing companies that offer built-in continuous monitoring solutions, compliance-specific reports, and remediation steps.
A. Generate Audit Certifications
Compliance auditors need third-party security certifications. The best API pentesting tools help identify and mitigate compliance-specific vulnerabilities to deliver clean bills of digital health.
B. Integrate Tech Stacks Flawlessly
Avoid compliance fines and production risks. Partner with a platform that offers end-to-end integration with your tech stack to facilitate vulnerability management in staging environments. Ideally, CI/CD integrations should be preferred.
C. Employ Qualified Pentesters
Often, compliances require at least an annual pentest by external auditors. Choose an API Pentest tool that offers both vulnerability scanning and penetration testing to serve multiple purposes.
Note: Partner with a platform with qualified pentesters with expertise in API pentesting to leverage their expertise and simplify audits.
4. Exhaustive Reporting
You can’t fix what you don’t understand. Your API pentesting platform should offer industrially-acceptable reports with executive summaries and detailed vulnerability descriptions on impact, steps to reproduce the vulnerability, risk scoring, and remediation assistance.
A. Avoid False Positives
Stop draining your budget over false alarms. The best API penetration testing tools weed out false positives to save time and resource wastage.
B. Gain a Competitive Edge
Reputations are built on trust. Partner for tools that offer publicly verifiable scan certificates that foster trust and give you a competitive advantage.
How To Choose The Best API Penetration Testing Tool?
Expert Opinion
“While testing APIs, running scans with automated scanners specialized in API scanning makes a good base for manual testing with tools like BurpSuite to cover all aspects of a comprehensive pentest.”
1. Prioritize Your Needs
Drowning in options for the ‘best’ API penetration testing tools? You’re not alone. Start with this ultimate API Security checklist to gain a better understanding of your current posture. Then, answer the following questions:
- Why do I need the API penetration testing tool?
- What is my budget and ideal pricing?
- What does my ideal timeline look like?
- Which compliances do I need to test for?
These questions help you create a blueprint of your primary goals, non-negotiables, and final cutoffs. Most importantly, they help differentiate between needs and good-to-haves!
2. Analyze Professional Track Records
Websites showcasing happy customers are standard in today’s marketing landscape. Every API pentesting tool has a page dedicated to glowing customer reports, testimonials, and case studies.
Go through independent expert reviews and customer reviews on G2 to understand and get a glimpse of the real picture.
Pro-Tip: Find vendors with experience in your industry or niche to reduce the learning curve. Experience with your tech stack is even better!
3. Evaluate the Quality of Pentesters
Hacking is far from a rigid process but as creative and unique as the hackers themselves. As such, your pentesters need to emulate the same ingenuity.
While choosing your API pentesting tool, evaluate the quality of automated pentesting and the team. Some key metrics include test cases, API discoverability, false positives, methodology, approach, and familiarity with compliance standards.
Pro-Tip: AI-assisted modeling can also help bridge the gap to generate new attack vectors.
Make your Web Application the safest place on the Internet.
With our detailed and specially
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4 Factors That Make API Penetration Testing Important
- Strong Security Posture: APIs are critical attack vectors for modern applications that penetration testing can help identify and remediate before their exploitation.
- Compliance Requirements: Regulations like PCI DSS, GDPR, and HIPAA, have requirements to perform regular API security testing.
- Data Breach Prevention: When not properly secured, APIs can leak sensitive data. Penetration testing mitigates this.
- Improved SDLC: Penetration testing helps developers in following secure coding practices and hence it builds a much secure API right from the ground up in the software development lifecycle.
Types of API Security Tools
Tools for API security are essential for safeguarding data and shielding apps from attacks. Here is a quick summary of the main kinds:
a. API Gateways
API gateways manage API traffic by serving as a control point. They manage traffic monitoring, rate limitation, and authentication to guarantee safe connections between clients and backend services.
b. Threat Detection Tools
These real-time API traffic monitoring technologies use anomaly detection or machine learning to spot possible threats like SQL injection and cross-site scripting (XSS) and notify security personnel.
c. API Security Testing Tools
Security testing tools check APIs for flaws both before and after deployment. By automating the process, they uncover vulnerabilities such as weak authentication, incorrect setups, or unsafe data storage.
d. Tools for Identity and Access Management (IAM)
IAM solutions employ multi-factor authentication (MFA), role-based access control (RBAC), and authentication to make sure only authorized users may access APIs.
e. API Discovery Tools
Using these technologies, an organization may discover all its APIs—even unmanaged or “shadow”—and ensure they are adequately secured and monitored.
By combining various technologies into their implementation, organizations may safeguard their APIs, find security holes, and maintain a strong security posture in the face of evolving cyber threats.
Final Thoughts
With this article, we aimed not only to view the best API penetration testing tools through a comparative lens but to help you better understand your needs and non-negotiables of API pentesting.
We have included open-source and paid tools, but key factors such as timeline, cost, and purpose of pentesting will help you narrow down the best choice. Expert reviews, comprehensive reports, and responsive customer support will also help simplify the choice.
Lastly, planning and executing an API pentest is far from easy or simple, but the security upsides make it worth the time and effort!
FAQs
What is API vulnerability?
An API vulnerability is an application programming interface (API) weakness that attackers can exploit. This weakness can allow them to gain unauthorized access to the application’s data, functionality, or resources. These vulnerabilities can arise due to flaws in the API’s design, implementation, or configuration.
What is API Penetration Testing?
API penetration testing is a testing process that simulates hacker activities under the boundaries to exploit API vulnerabilities. It involves a combination of automated tools and manual techniques to test weak points in authentication, authorization, data validation, and other vital areas.
What are the Top Risks to API Security?
Common API security risks include broken authentication and authorization (impersonating users to access data), injection attacks (malicious code is injected into the API), broken access control (unauthorized users can access data), and improper data exposure (the API can be misconfigured to leak sensitive information).
What are the Best Open-Source API Pentesting Tools?
Popular open-source options include ZAP, Burp Suite Community Edition, and Akto. These tools offer good functionality but may require more technical expertise.
Additional Resources on API Security:
- What is API Penetration Testing?
- What is API Security testing?
- 7 Top API Penetration Testing Tools in 2025
- The Ultimate 2025 API Security Checklist
- Mobile App API Security: A Complete Guide
- OWASP API Top 10 Explained with Real-World Examples
- API Security Testing Pricing: All You Need To Know
- 10 Best API Security Tools for 2025
- API Security Pricing: How Much Does API Security Cost?
- 10 Best API Security Companies To Consider in 2025
