Best Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST) Software

PortSwigger's Burp Suite has set the standard for web security testing for more than 20 years, with the flagship lineup split into distinct editions for different use cases: Burp Suite Professional, described as the world's number one web penetration testing toolkit; Burp Suite DAST, an enterprise-enabled dynamic web vulnerability scanner; and Burp Suite Community Edition, a free set of manual tools for getting started with web security testing. A newer Burp AI (Burp AT) adds agentic AI that extends human-led penetration testing rather than replacing the tester.

Burp Scanner, the core vulnerability-scanning engine behind these editions, gives teams attack surface visibility to prioritize manual testing and free up tester time, alongside CI-driven scanning for finding and fixing vulnerabilities earlier in the development pipeline. Solution pages on PortSwigger's site are organized around specific use cases: DevSecOps (catching critical bugs before shipping), penetration testing acceleration, automated scanning at scale, bug bounty hunting, and compliance-driven security monitoring.

PortSwigger publishes a direct product comparison explaining the difference between Burp Suite Professional and Burp Suite DAST specifically, reflecting that the two serve different buyers (individual penetration testers versus enterprise-wide automated scanning programs). Pricing is not published on the general product page; prospective customers use the getting-started pages for either Professional or DAST to see current terms.

Rapid7 InsightAppSec is dynamic application security testing (DAST) software built as part of Rapid7's broader Command Platform, which brings attack surface management, exposure management, vulnerability management and application security together for teams that want DAST results in the same place as their other security telemetry rather than in a standalone tool.

As part of the Command Platform, InsightAppSec's scan results feed into the same exposure-management and vulnerability-management workflows Rapid7 customers already use for infrastructure and cloud risk, helping security teams prioritize application vulnerabilities alongside other attack-surface findings instead of triaging them in isolation. This platform integration is InsightAppSec's main differentiator against point-solution DAST scanners.

Rapid7 publishes InsightAppSec's starting price directly: plans begin at $175 per month for its DAST solution, with a request-a-demo and request-a-quote path for full program pricing based on application count and scan frequency. That published starting price is a meaningful signal on its own in a market where most enterprise DAST vendors quote nothing at all, letting smaller security teams get a rough budget number before ever talking to sales.

HCL AppScan is an AI application security testing platform spanning several distinct products under one family: AppScan Standard for dynamic application security testing (DAST) on web apps and APIs, AppScan Source for static application security testing (SAST) early in development, AppScan CodeSweep as a free, simple developer-focused SAST tool, AppScan Supply Chain Security for code-to-cloud posture management, and AppScan RapidFix, an agentic-AI triage tool that recommends trusted fixes to cut manual work and reduce security debt.

The DAST line specifically offers incremental scanning, test optimization, third-party component detection and web API scanning, while the SAST line emphasizes AI-driven accuracy, broad language coverage, secrets scanning and fix recommendations. An IAST capability monitors live applications for runtime vulnerability detection alongside the static and dynamic scan types. AppScan Code Defense Training rounds out the family by training developers on safe coding practices as they write code, rather than only after a scan finds a problem.

Pricing runs through a marketplace/credit-pack model rather than a flat subscription: CodeSweep is free, a single security scan runs $29.99, a scan pack covering a choice of DAST, SAST or SCA scans runs $299, and a 50-scan pack (the platform's best-value deal) runs $699. This pay-per-scan structure lets smaller teams buy exactly the scanning capacity they need rather than committing to an enterprise-wide license upfront.