Application Security Tool Pricing Guide

How AppSec tool pricing actually works

AppSec vendors use four main pricing models. Which one a vendor follows tells you a lot about how your bill will grow over time.

Per-developer (per-seat) pricing

You pay based on “contributing developers” – usually anyone who committed to a monitored repo in the last 90 days. This is the most common model in 2026.

Snyk uses this approach, starting at $25/developer/month on the Team plan. At scale, Snyk’s per-developer cost drops to around $676/developer/year for larger deployments.

The trap here is developer count creep. Contractors, part-time contributors, and open-source contributors can inflate your headcount. Some vendors count unique committers across all repos, so a developer working on three projects still counts as one seat. Others count differently. Ask before you sign.

This model works well if you have a large application portfolio but a relatively small development team.

Per-application pricing

You pay based on the number of applications, APIs, or targets you scan. This is common in DAST and some SAST products.

Veracode charges roughly $500/app for dynamic scans and $4,500/year for static analysis of a single application. Invicti prices by the number of FQDNs (fully qualified domain names) in your scanning scope.

The tricky part is how the vendor defines “application.” Some count each microservice separately. Others treat a monorepo with 12 services as one application. Get this clarified in writing before signing.

This model suits smaller teams with few applications but many developers contributing to each one.

Per-scan or usage-based pricing

You pay based on scanning volume: number of scans, lines of code analyzed, or scanning hours consumed.

SonarQube prices its Server editions by lines of code: the Developer Edition costs around $2,500/year for 500K lines, while Enterprise Edition runs $35,700/year for 5M lines. Burp Suite Enterprise has configurations priced at $9 per scanning hour. Beagle Security charges only for tests run, not targets managed.

The risk is runaway costs when scanning is automated. If your CI pipeline triggers a scan on every pull request and you process 200 PRs per day, usage-based pricing gets expensive fast.

This model works for organizations with variable scanning needs or teams that are just getting started and want to keep initial costs low.

Platform subscription

An annual or multi-year subscription for a full security platform, usually with tiered plans (Essentials, Professional, Enterprise).

Checkmarx One, Fortify, and most ASPM vendors follow this model. Pricing is custom and negotiated with sales. Checkmarx One reportedly costs around $500,000/year for 250 developers at enterprise scale, though smaller deals start well below that.

The downside is lock-in. Platform subscriptions often come with 2-3 year commitments and auto-renewal clauses. Read the termination terms before you commit.

This model makes sense for enterprises that want a single platform covering SAST, SCA, DAST, and IaC scanning.

Price ranges by category

The ranges below come from published pricing, vendor disclosures, and analyst reports as of early 2026. Your actual price will vary depending on organization size, scope, and how hard you negotiate.

SAST (Static Application Security Testing)

Snyk Code is included in Snyk’s per-developer pricing at $25/month per developer (Team plan). SonarQube Developer Edition starts at $2,500/year for 500K lines of code. Checkmarx One pricing is entirely custom but typically starts around $50,000/year for small deployments.

SCA (Software Composition Analysis)

SCA pricing often bundles with SAST from the same vendor. Veracode SCA starts around $12,000/year depending on the number of repositories. Mend charges approximately $1,000 per developer for full platform access. GitHub’s Dependabot is free for all GitHub repositories.

DAST (Dynamic Application Security Testing)

Burp Suite Professional costs $475/year per user and is the standard for manual penetration testers. Burp Suite Enterprise (now Burp Suite DAST) starts around $30,000/year for automated scanning. Invicti starts at approximately $7,000/year for basic packages. StackHawk’s Pro plan runs $49/contributor/month.

IAST (Interactive Application Security Testing)

IAST is almost exclusively commercial. There are no widely-adopted open-source IAST tools. Pricing typically follows per-application or per-server models.

RASP (Runtime Application Self-Protection)

Like IAST, RASP is dominated by commercial vendors. The only notable open-source option, OpenRASP, has been deprecated.

IaC Security

IaC security is the friendliest category for budget-conscious teams. All six tools we track have free versions, and four are fully open-source.

ASPM (Application Security Posture Management)

ASPM pricing is almost always custom. Apiiro charges per developer/month with a minimum of 50 seats. Most ASPM vendors require an annual contract of at least $50,000.

Free and open-source options by category

You can build a functional AppSec scanning pipeline without spending anything. Here is a free tool stack covering the core categories:

The gap is in IAST, RASP, and enterprise API security, where open-source options are limited or nonexistent.

Hidden costs most buyers miss

The license fee is only part of what you will pay. These costs catch first-time buyers off guard.

Implementation and integration

Setting up a commercial tool takes 2 weeks to 3 months depending on your CI/CD complexity. Expect 40-200 hours of engineering time on integration. At a loaded cost of $80-$150/hour, that is $3,200-$30,000 in labor per tool, and nobody ever budgets for it.

Training

Developers and security teams need time to learn the tool. Budget 4-8 hours per person for basic proficiency and 20-40 hours for whoever will administer the platform. Some vendors charge separately for training; others bundle it with onboarding.

False positive triage

Every scanning tool produces false positives. Someone has to review, triage, and suppress them. From our experience reviewing SAST tools and DAST tools, the initial triage on a mature codebase takes 20-80 hours. Commercial tools have lower false positive rates than open-source alternatives, but “lower” still means hundreds of findings on a large application.

Infrastructure costs

Self-hosted tools need servers, storage, and ongoing maintenance. A SonarQube Enterprise deployment on AWS typically runs $500-$2,000/month in infrastructure costs alone. Cloud-hosted tools avoid this expense but may create data residency concerns.

Custom rule development

Default rules catch common vulnerabilities, but your organization’s specific patterns, frameworks, and business logic need custom rules. Budget 2-5 days per quarter for rule tuning once the tool is running.

Renewal price increases

Most vendors raise prices 5-15% at renewal. Multi-year contracts lock in pricing but reduce your flexibility to switch. Ask about price caps in the contract.

Budget recommendations by team size

Startup (5-15 developers)

Recommended annual budget: $0 - $5,000

At this stage, put your money into developers, not tools. Use free and open-source options:

• SAST: Semgrep OSS (free CLI)
• SCA: Trivy or Grype in your CI pipeline
• DAST: ZAP or Nuclei for periodic scans
• IaC: Checkov if you use Terraform or CloudFormation

The only commercial investment worth considering at this stage is Snyk Free tier (up to 5 users) or GitHub’s native security features (Dependabot, CodeQL).

Mid-market (50-200 developers)

Recommended annual budget: $30,000 - $150,000

At this scale, you need centralized reporting, policy enforcement, and lower false-positive rates. A typical stack looks like this:

• SAST: Snyk Code or SonarQube Developer ($10,000-$40,000)
• SCA: Snyk Open Source or Mend SCA ($10,000-$30,000)
• DAST: StackHawk or Burp Suite Enterprise ($5,000-$30,000)
• IaC: Keep using Checkov or add Snyk IaC as part of a Snyk bundle

Bundle discounts matter here. Snyk, Checkmarx, and Veracode all offer platform bundles that are 20-40% cheaper than buying individual products.

Enterprise (500+ developers)

Recommended annual budget: $200,000 - $1,000,000+

At this level, the buying decision shifts toward full-platform solutions:

• Platform: Checkmarx One, Fortify, or Veracode ($100,000-$500,000)
• ASPM: ArmorCode, Apiiro, or OX Security ($80,000-$300,000)
• DAST: Invicti or Qualys WAS for web app coverage ($30,000-$100,000)
• Supplementary: Open-source tools like Trivy and Nuclei for breadth

At enterprise scale, the question changes from “which tool” to “which platform” and “how do we consolidate.” ASPM becomes a practical necessity for managing findings across multiple scanners.

Negotiation tips

Timing matters

Software companies run on quarterly or annual sales cycles. Sales reps face quota pressure at the end of each quarter (March, June, September, December), and the pressure doubles at fiscal year-end. Reach out in the last two weeks of a quarter and you will get better pricing than mid-quarter.

Bring competition to the table

Get quotes from at least two vendors in the same category. Mention the competing offer. A Checkmarx sales team will sharpen their pencil when they know you are also evaluating Veracode, and vice versa.

Bundle for discounts

Vendors want platform deals. If you are buying SAST and also need SCA, negotiate both together. Bundle discounts typically range from 20-40% off list price. Snyk, Checkmarx, and Veracode all offer multi-product bundles.

Ask about startup programs

Many vendors have discounted programs for companies under a certain revenue threshold or headcount. Snyk, Semgrep, and several ASPM vendors offer startup-friendly tiers that are not listed on their pricing pages. You have to ask the sales rep directly.

Push back on auto-renewal

Standard contracts often include automatic renewal at the new list price, which may be 10-15% higher than what you originally signed. Negotiate a renewal cap (e.g., maximum 5% annual increase) or go for a multi-year deal with fixed pricing.

Negotiate scope, not just price

If the vendor will not lower the number, negotiate for more value instead: additional seats, extended support hours, professional services for onboarding, or access to premium features. Getting $20,000 in professional services included is the same as a $20,000 discount.

Frequently asked questions

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.