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StackHawk HawkScan vs w3af

StackHawk HawkScan

stackhawk.com

w3af

w3af.org

Side by side

FigureStackHawk HawkScanw3af
Price from$10/moFree
Free plan—Yes
Free trialYes—
Open source——
WebYesYes
WindowsYes—
macOSYesYes
LinuxYesYes
APIYesYes
Self-hostedYesYes
Plans published21
Spec score · Dynamic Application Security Testing Software7.9 (#9)8.2 (#7)
Spec score · Application Security Testing7.8 (#13)8.1 (#8)
IntegrationsThe documentation lists CI/CD integrations including GitHub Actions, GitLab CI/CD, Azure Pipelines, Jenkins, CircleCI, and Bitbucket Pipelines, plus workflow integrations such as Slack, Jira Cloud, Microsoft Teams, and GitHub CodeQL.The documentation describes Metasploit integration and suggests sending vulnerabilities to an internal issue tracker through its REST API.
SupportThe pricing comparison lists Standard support for Wingman and Enterprise support for Scale.For installation issues, the guide directs users to create a ticket and include their Linux distribution, dependency-install script, pip freeze output, and Python version.
Vulnerability coverageWingman lists examples from more than 150 vulnerability types, including SQL injection, sensitive data exposure, cross-site scripting, and remote code execution.The project repository says the scanner can identify more than 200 vulnerabilities, including cross-site scripting, SQL injection, and OS command injection.

Plans

StackHawk HawkScan

  • Wingman by StackHawk$10 a month
  • StackHawk ScalePriced on request

StackHawk HawkScan pricing →

w3af

  • w3afFree

w3af pricing →

In their own words

StackHawk HawkScan

StackHawk HawkScan has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.

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w3af

w3af is a free, open-source web application security scanner for vulnerability assessments and penetration tests. It can identify more than 200 vulnerabilities, including cross-site scripting, SQL injection, and OS command injection. Its workflow starts with crawler plugins that find URLs and injection points, continues with audit plugins that check for vulnerabilities, and can use attack plugins to exploit findings. Other plugin types cover infrastructure detection, request and response analysis, output, brute force, request modification, and evasion.

Users can scan and analyze results in a GTK graphical interface or a console. Web application payloads can interact with Metasploit when an exploit provides exec() capability. Developers can use the REST API from development languages and run it in Docker; scripts and the API also support automation. The project documents Linux and macOS installation, including running in Docker without installing w3af dependencies. It is available for Linux, macOS, web, API, and self-hosted deployment. REST API traffic over HTTP is unencrypted, so the documentation recommends added protection such as an SSL proxy for publicly reachable deployments.

Visit w3af.org