Burp Suite vs ZAP

Quick Verdict

Burp Suite Professional is the go-to toolkit for hands-on web security testing. The manual tools, scanner accuracy, and BApp ecosystem give pentesters an edge that no free tool fully matches. ZAP is the best free DAST scanner available — strong CI/CD integration, a YAML automation framework, and zero licensing cost make it the default choice for DevSecOps teams that need automated scanning in their pipelines.

Feature Comparison

Burp Suite vs ZAP: Head-to-Head

Scanning Accuracy

Burp Suite Professional generally outperforms ZAP in detection rate comparisons. PortSwigger’s scanner has been refined over two decades and covers a wider range of vulnerability classes with fewer false positives. The active scanner is particularly strong at detecting second-order vulnerabilities and logic-based issues that pattern-matching scanners miss.

ZAP’s scanner is capable and has improved steadily. For standard OWASP Top 10 issues — XSS, SQL injection, directory traversal, security misconfigurations — it catches what matters. The gap between the two tools has narrowed over the years, though Burp still has an edge on complex vulnerability types.

Both tools support REST, GraphQL, and SOAP API scanning. ZAP’s API scanning scripts (zap-api-scan.py) make it easy to import OpenAPI specs and test every endpoint automatically.

Manual Testing

This is where Burp Suite has its widest lead. Repeater lets you iterate on individual requests with a clean interface. Intruder offers four attack modes — Sniper, Battering Ram, Pitchfork, and Cluster Bomb — for fuzzing and brute-force testing. Comparer highlights subtle response differences. Sequencer analyzes token randomness. Decoder handles encoding conversions. Each tool flows naturally into the next during a test.

ZAP has manual testing capabilities — you can intercept, modify, and replay requests — but the workflow is not as polished. The fuzzer works but offers fewer attack configuration options than Intruder. For professional pentesters who spend hours in manual testing tools, the quality-of-life difference adds up.

CI/CD Integration

ZAP takes the lead here. Official GitHub Actions (zaproxy/action-baseline, zaproxy/action-full-scan, zaproxy/action-api-scan), pre-built Docker images, GitLab CI templates, and the YAML automation framework make ZAP pipeline-ready out of the box. The automation framework lets you define entire scan workflows — contexts, authentication, spidering, scanning, reporting — as code in version control. SARIF output integrates directly with GitHub and GitLab code scanning.

Burp Suite DAST (formerly Enterprise Edition) runs from Docker containers and integrates with Jenkins, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Azure DevOps, and TeamCity. It delivers Burp’s scanner engine in a headless, CI-friendly format. The catch is that it requires a separate enterprise license on top of Professional.

The Burp Community Edition and Professional Edition are desktop applications designed for interactive use. They are not built for pipeline automation.

Extensibility

Burp’s BApp Store has 500+ extensions covering active scanning enhancements, JWT manipulation, access control testing, traffic analysis, and more. Custom extensions use Java or Python (Jython). PortSwigger also introduced BChecks for lightweight custom scan checks.

ZAP’s add-on marketplace has hundreds of extensions for additional scan rules, import/export formats, authentication handlers, and reporting templates. Custom scripting supports JavaScript, Python, and Zest (a graphical scripting language designed for security testing). The open-source nature means community contributions flow freely.

Both ecosystems are robust. Burp’s BApps tend to be more polished, while ZAP’s open-source add-ons sometimes move faster on emerging technologies.

Pricing

ZAP is free. No tiers, no limits, no restrictions. Apache 2.0 license. Checkmarx funds development but charges nothing for the tool.

Burp Suite Community Edition is free but severely limited — throttled scanning, no project saves, no automated scanner. Professional costs $449/year per user and is the minimum for real-world work. Burp Suite DAST pricing is separate and enterprise-quoted.

For individual pentesters, $449/year for Burp Professional is a reasonable investment. For organizations adding DAST across dozens of pipelines, ZAP’s zero cost is a significant advantage.

When to Choose Burp Suite

Choose Burp Suite if:

• You are a professional pentester who needs the best manual testing workflow available
• Scanner accuracy on complex vulnerability types is a top priority
• The BApp Store ecosystem and Burp AI add value to your assessments
• You need polished client-facing reports from a recognized tool
• Budget for $449/year per tester is not a constraint

When to Choose ZAP

Choose ZAP if:

• You need free DAST with no feature restrictions or usage limits
• Automated CI/CD scanning is your primary use case
• YAML-based scan configuration as code fits your DevSecOps workflow
• SARIF output for GitHub or GitLab code scanning integration is required
• You want an open-source tool you can inspect, modify, and extend without restrictions
• Your team is adding DAST for the first time and wants to start without purchasing decisions

Many security teams use both tools. Burp Suite Professional for manual penetration testing engagements, ZAP for automated scanning in CI/CD pipelines. The two tools serve different parts of the security testing workflow and complement each other well.

For more DAST tools, see our full category comparison.

Frequently Asked Questions

Written by

Suphi Cankurt

Suphi Cankurt is an application security enthusiast based in Helsinki, Finland. He reviews and compares 129 AppSec tools across 10 categories on AppSec Santa. Learn more.