If you are choosing a web application security scanner for the first time or you are struggling to get the most out of the Netsparker, here is why you should consider the Acunetix vulnerability scanner instead.
Web application security vulnerabilities are the number one cause of data breaches according to the latest edition of the Verizon Data Breach Intelligence Report. Whether your business depends on open-source content management systems like WordPress or Joomla!, commercial off-the-shelf frameworks, or code custom-developed for your business, critical issues including Cross-site Scripting (XSS), remote and local file inclusion, and SQL Injection vulnerabilities can lead to the loss of sensitive data stored behind those applications. To protect your reputation as well as the data of your clients and employees, web application vulnerability scanning must be a core component of your information security program.
Both Acunetix and Netsparker are top-class products with leading-edge web application scanning technologies. They have been on the market for a very long time and they have been developed from scratch as web security solutions. Most other products are either network scanning add-ons (for example, Qualys or Nessus) or extensions of manual tools (for example, Burp Suite). The difference between Acunetix and Netsparker is that Netsparker is primarily for enterprises while Acunetix covers a much wider scope of uses.
Scan Single-Page Applications With Confidence
Acunetix gives you the confidence of the DeepScan engine, which gives you the best-in-class mapping of modern single-page applications based on JavaScript and HTML5. As more web applications shift to the client-side, you need a web application scanner that knows how to crawl those applications, find inputs, and identify vulnerabilities. That includes the ability to detect DOM-based XSS, a high-severity vulnerability that most automated web application vulnerability scanners struggle to detect.
In 2013, before competitors like Qualys, IBM APPScan, or WebInspect, Acunetix became the first vulnerability detection and security testing tool to focus its research and implementation efforts on single-page applications. The result, our proprietary DeepScan engine, was built from the ground up to crawl the full functionality of modern JavaScript-based applications: every tag, every attribute, every event.
Beyond Black Box Scanning
Though both Acunetix and Netsparker can perform black-box scanning, otherwise known as dynamic application security testing (DAST), only Acunetix gives you the power of AcuSensor. AcuSensor is an agent installed on the web server, which gives you the ability to perform gray box-testing, also known as interactive application security testing (IAST), against applications written in Java, ASP.NET, and PHP. That server-level presence complements the black-box scan with additional visibility, allowing you to identify even more vulnerabilities and make the already low rate of false positives even lower.
Industry-Leading Flexibility and Speed
As your business scales, you need an automated web application scanner that detects vulnerabilities in the OWASP Top 10 and beyond no matter what technologies you depend on and no matter how large your web footprint may be. Acunetix adapts and scales with you.
Acunetix has stand-alone on-premises versions of the vulnerability scanner that run on both Windows or Linux, allowing your security team to run scans no matter what operating system they depend on. As your team scales, you can expand with the multi-engine configuration, which allows you to control and report from multiple scanning engines in your own environment from a central console. And, if your team prefers a software-as-a-service model, Acunetix Online offers all the scanning and vulnerability management features of our web vulnerability scanner from the cloud.
We utilize Acunetix to more thoroughly assess internet-facing websites and servers. Acunetix helps us identify vulnerabilities in conjunction with other vulnerability scanning applications. Acunetix has been a more reliable application when discovering / determining different types of malicious code injection vulnerabilities (SQL, HTML, CGI, etc).
Frequently asked questions
The biggest advantage of Acunetix over Netsparker is efficiency. The Acunetix engine is built in C++ and it uses multiple techniques that speed up scans, provide quicker results, and lessen the load on the web application.
Acunetix has several features that are not available in Netsparker. Acunetix offers an IAST solution while Netsparker just offers DAST. Acunetix uses a network scanner engine and manages all network vulnerabilities together with web vulnerabilities. Acunetix is also the only web vulnerability scanner available on Linux.
Acunetix provides proof that a vulnerability exists. However, we do not call it proof-based scanning – it is a name used by Netsparker only. In the Acunetix interface, proof of vulnerability is labeled as Proof of Exploit. Note that both products provide this proof in an absolutely safe way.
Acunetix has products that satisfy different customer needs, similar to Netsparker. Acunetix Standard is the entry-level product for the smallest businesses. Acunetix Premium focuses on efficiency and a wide scope of features. Acunetix 360 is an offering for enterprises with a focus on integration.