Burp Suite vs ZAP when the web app tester needs a proxy, a scanner, and a budget line of USD 499 per user per year or a free open-source license

A pentest scoping call usually ends with one line item: a USD 499 Burp Suite Professional license, or nothing at all for ZAP. Both are intercepting proxies with active scanners, spidering, and scripting for web application testing. They split on who the tool is built around: the hands-on tester with a commercial toolkit, or automation in a pipeline with an open-source scanner.

PortSwigger sells Burp Suite Professional per user, with the Burp Scanner, Intruder, Repeater, Collaborator, BApp extensions, and Burp AI, plus Burp Suite DAST for scheduled enterprise scanning. ZAP is free under the Apache 2.0 license; it left OWASP in 2023 and its core team joined Checkmarx in 2024, which markets it as ZAP by Checkmarx while the project stays open source.

Buy Burp Suite when testers need Intruder, Collaborator out-of-band checks, and a supported commercial scanner. Buy ZAP when scans must run free in CI with Docker images, the Automation Framework, and open-source add-ons.

Overview

	Burp Suite	ZAP
Primary use case	Hands-on web application and API security testing with an intercepting proxy, Burp Scanner, and manual tools, plus Burp Suite DAST for scheduled scanning at scale	Free intercepting proxy and automated scanner for web apps and APIs, used manually in the desktop UI or headless in CI through Docker and the Automation Framework
Day-to-day workflow	Proxy traffic through the embedded browser, crawl and audit with Burp Scanner, iterate requests in Repeater, fuzz with Intruder, and confirm out-of-band issues with Collaborator	Run baseline, full, or API scans from Docker images in CI, define jobs in Automation Framework YAML, or proxy manually and review alerts in the desktop UI
Main buying consideration	Burp Suite Professional USD 499 per user per year on portswigger.net, checked 10 Oct 2026. Each user needs a license. Burp Suite DAST priced by sites scanned with unlimited users	Free and open source under Apache 2.0. Commercial support and services available through Checkmarx and other providers

We reviewed the Burp Suite Professional product page and licensing model, Burp Suite DAST pricing, and Burp Collaborator documentation, plus ZAP documentation for Docker packaged scans, the Automation Framework, and add-ons, and the Checkmarx ZAP announcement, on 10 Oct 2026. We did not run either tool against a production target for this page.

Burp Suite

ZAP

Editions and pricing

One tool costs USD 499 per tester per year. The other costs nothing to license, so the comparison is about the work each one removes.

	Burp Suite	ZAP
How it is sold	Burp Suite Community Edition free, Burp Suite Professional per user per year, and Burp Suite DAST for enterprise scheduled scanning	Single free edition. Optional commercial support and enterprise services through Checkmarx and partners
Figure on the public page	USD 499 per user per year for Professional. DAST priced by number of sites, with a quote path	USD 0 under Apache 2.0
Free tier limits	Community Edition lacks Burp Scanner and throttles Intruder, so automated scanning requires Professional or DAST	No paid tier gates; all scanners and add-ons are available

Manual testing and scanning

Both proxy traffic and run active scans. The split is the depth of manual tooling and out-of-band detection.

	Burp Suite	ZAP
Out-of-band detection	Burp Collaborator receives DNS, HTTP, and SMTP interactions to confirm blind SSRF, injection, and similar issues	Out-of-band testing through the OAST add-on, which supports external callback services
Fuzzing	Intruder with payload sets, attack types, and full speed on Professional	Fuzzer with payload generators and scripts in the desktop UI
Extensions	BApp Store extensions in Java or Python, and Burp AI assistance on Professional	Marketplace add-ons and scripts in JavaScript, Python, and other languages

Automation and CI

Both can run unattended. The documented split is a commercial DAST product versus free packaged scans and YAML automation.

	Burp Suite	ZAP
Pipeline object	Burp Suite DAST schedules scans across many sites with CI integrations and unlimited users	Docker packaged scans: zap-baseline, zap-full-scan, and zap-api-scan, returning pass, warn, or fail codes for CI
Configuration as code	Scan configurations and DAST API for orchestration	Automation Framework plans in YAML that chain spider, scan, and report jobs
API testing	Burp Scanner audits APIs defined by OpenAPI and recorded traffic	API scan imports OpenAPI, SOAP, and GraphQL definitions

Favor Burp Suite when the documented requirement is Burp Scanner, Intruder at full speed, Burp Collaborator out-of-band checks, BApp extensions, and USD 499 per-tester licensing, with Burp Suite DAST for scheduled scale. Favor ZAP when the documented requirement is a free Apache-licensed scanner with Docker packaged scans, Automation Framework YAML, and API scan imports in CI.