We performed a comparison between Owasp Zap and Portswigger Burp Suite Professional based on our users’ reviews in four categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Comparison of Results: Based on the parameters we compared, Owasp Zap seems to be a superior solution. All other things being more or less equal, our reviewers found the full version of Portswigger Burp Suite Professional to be rather expensive to purchase. Additionally, some users of Portswigger Burp Suite Professional are not so impressed by the technical support and documentation that it offers. Finally, one user of Portswigger Burp Suite Professional implied that it would be a better product if it had a HUD like Owasp Zap.
"It can be used effectively for internal auditing."
"Fuzzer and Java APIs help a lot with our custom needs."
"Stability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten. I think it's stable enough. I don't see any crashes within the application, so its stability is high."
"The interface is easy to use."
"We use the solution for security testing."
"The solution has tightened our security."
"Automatic scanning is a valuable feature and very easy to use."
"The HUD is a good feature that provides on-site testing and saves a lot of time."
"Some of the extensions, available using Burp Extender, are also very good and we have found issues by using them."
"We are mostly using it for scanning the entire website. So, we basically create a script with the entire website and then run it for different injections."
"It helps in API testing, where manual intervention was previously necessary for each payload."
"You can download different plugins if you don't have them in the standard edition."
"Once I capture the proxy, I'm able to transfer across. All the requested information is there. I can send across the request to what we call a repeater, where I get to ready the payload that I send to the application. Put in malicious content and then see if it's responding to it."
"There is no other tool like it. I like the intuitiveness and the plugins that are available."
"The solution helped us discover vulnerabilities in our applications."
"It is a time-saver application."
"It doesn't run on absolutely every operating system."
"The reporting feature could be more descriptive."
"They stopped their support for a short period. They've recently started to come back again. In the early days, support was much better."
"The documentation is lacking and out-of-date, it really needs more love."
"It would be a great improvement if they could include a marketplace to add extra features to the tool."
"Lacks resources where users can internally access a learning module from the tool."
"As security evolves, we would like DevOps built into it. As of now, Zap does not provide this."
"Sometimes, we get some false positives."
"The solution’s pricing could be improved."
"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 Burp Collaborator needs improvement. There also needs to be improved integration."
"The number of false positives need to be reduced on the solution."
"I need the solution to be more user-friendly. The solution needs to be user-friendly."
"The Auto Scanning features should be updated more frequently and should include the latest attack vectors."
"The initial setup is a bit complex."
"We'd like to have more integration potential across all versions of the product."
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OWASP Zap is ranked 8th in Application Security Testing (AST) with 37 reviews while PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional is ranked 5th in Application Security Testing (AST) with 55 reviews. OWASP Zap is rated 7.6, while PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional is rated 8.6. The top reviewer of OWASP Zap writes "Great for automating and testing and has tightened our security ". On the other hand, the top reviewer of PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional writes "The solution is versatile and easy to deploy, but it needs to give more detailed security reports". OWASP Zap is most compared with SonarQube, Acunetix, Qualys Web Application Scanning, Veracode and Checkmarx One, whereas PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional is most compared with Fortify WebInspect, Acunetix, HCL AppScan, Qualys Web Application Scanning and SonarQube. See our OWASP Zap vs. PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional report.
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Yes OWASP ZAP is a good option as it's an open source so always preferred but Burp Suite Pro will give you more options, its one of the best tool to have for pentesters so defo worth it.
First things first both are having their own merits, however in my personal experience ZAP can replace your burpsuite for sure considering the License. Also as the latest ZAP versions are covering more advanced techniques and spidering patterns with lots of options in it, it is worth considering ZAP. However remember that burpsuite from latest versions with inbuilt chromium and it's emerging plugin support (Installable jars) you can use burp to the fullest and you can keep it as a swiss knife for your web and app pentesting. Couple of extensions in burp pro are interesting especially the race condition one. I always prefer using Burp and at instances I go with ZAP.
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 quality security vulnerabilities. Both are very comparable in terms of intercepting features, fuzzing capabilities, and encoder and decoders. Both OWASP Zap and PortSwigger Burp Suite Pro have a spider feature, and provide updates.
One big difference between the two, though, is price. OWASP Zap is free, but Burp Suite Pro requires a paid subscription (currently $399 per year). OWASP Zap is maintained by volunteers whereas Burp Suite Pro is a commercial product maintained and sold by PortSwigger, which makes me feel more confident in it. In addition, OWASP Zap provides little documentation, which may be why some people prefer Burp Suite Pro (which offers extensive documentation). Moreover, Burp Suite Pro includes more coverage than OWASP Zap. But it is also worth noting that OWASP Zap has more false positives than Burp Suite Pro.
I like Burp Suite Pro’s interface a lot more than OWASP Zap’s. Another big plus for me with Burp is its Comparer tab,which allows for easier change detection. OWASP Zap does not include this feature without extensions and a ZAP plugin is required. Another thing about OWASP Zap I dislike is that the ability to search for text in the request or server response is difficult, while Burp Suite Pro makes it easier and more accessible.
Conclusion:
In my opinion, Burp Suite Pro is better than OWASP Zap because of its features, which I feel make it a better choice for security professionals. Both OWASP Zap and Burp Suite Pro have good sets of capabilities. However, Burp Suite Pro excels in the specific capabilities I need in more ways that OWASP Zap does.