Acunetix vs ModSecurity

Acunetix, now Invicti Web + API, scans running web applications and APIs for vulnerabilities that could be exploited. Proof-based scanning can validate findings and provide evidence of exploitability to help teams assess false positives. The product says it identifies more than 7,000 issues, including OWASP Top 10 and OWASP API Top 10 risks and business logic flaws. It supports single-page and JavaScript-heavy applications, REST, GraphQL, and SOAP APIs, including authenticated user flows. Its AI-driven risk scoring uses more than 200 signals before scanning begins. Listed issue tracker integrations include Jira, Microsoft TFS (Azure DevOps), GitHub, GitLab, Bugzilla, and Mantis; Acunetix Premium also integrates with Jenkins. The company describes the tool as intended to help small and mid-size organizations manage web security. Pricing for Web + API is on request; a Proof of Concept license is offered to try the complete solution in an organization's environment. Agentic Pentest costs $500, paid once and covers a single application and its API suite, with audit-ready PDF reports and delivery within 24 hours.

ModSecurity is an open-source web application firewall that examines incoming HTTP(S) traffic and can block malicious requests before they reach an application. It runs inside Apache, Nginx or IIS as a module, not as a separate appliance or proxy. The project provides traffic visibility, a rules language and an API for implementing protections. ModSecurity can run alone or with the OWASP Core Rule Set, which the FAQ says provides broad coverage against common web attacks. Listed uses include real-time security monitoring and access control, HTTP traffic logging, passive security assessment and web application hardening. It supports Linux, Unix-like systems, Windows and macOS when paired with a compatible web server. Installation guidance recommends starting in detection-only mode, reviewing and tuning events, then enabling blocking. Inspecting every request can have a small performance impact, and tuning rules can help manage it. OWASP maintains the project with community contributors, with Slack and GitHub listed for community activity. The plan costs nothing; managed rule sets are not included.