Burp Suite Alternatives for Web App Security Testing

Burp Suite is PortSwigger's toolkit for testing web apps by sitting between your browser and the target as an intercepting proxy. It is alive and still growing. The Professional page lists the paid edition at $499 per user per year, sold as a subscription of one to ten years, and PortSwigger now sells Burp Suite DAST for automated scanning at scale and a newer product called Burp AT, which it describes as agentic AI for human-led pentests. The free Community Edition keeps the proxy, Repeater, Decoder, Sequencer and Comparer, but the Community download page lists the scanner, project files, Burp Collaborator and the full Intruder as Professional features.

So the reason to look elsewhere is usually one of three things. You want those missing features without paying $499 per user per year. You want a scanner that runs on a schedule across many sites. Or you want a proxy you can script in Python or run on a server with no screen. The tools below are grouped roughly in that order: manual proxies first, scanners after.

Packet sniffers are not on this list, because they show raw traffic rather than letting you edit and resend requests. If that is the job, our Wireshark alternatives guide covers tcpdump, Zeek and the rest.

Prices below are as of November 6, 2026. Our method is on How we review tools.

Quick comparison

ZAP

Most people who leave Burp for cost reasons end up on ZAP, the project once known as OWASP ZAP. It does the same core job: an intercepting proxy, a spider, and an active scanner that sends attack payloads and reports what breaks. Unlike Burp Community, the scanner is included at no cost. ZAP left OWASP in September 2023 to fund its development, and the ownership page says three Core Team members are now paid by Checkmarx to work on it, hence the ZAP by Checkmarx label. The project still calls itself independent and open source.

Version 2.17.0 is the current stable build. There are installers for 64-bit and 32-bit Windows, Linux, and separate macOS images for Intel and Apple silicon, plus a cross-platform zip. Weekly builds come out alongside it. ZAP also publishes Docker images and an automation framework, so a CI pipeline can run a baseline scan without anyone opening the desktop app.

Best for: Testers and small security teams who need an active scanner and proxy without a licence bill.

Pricing:

• Free and open source
• No paid edition

Watch out for:

• Windows and Linux builds need Java 17 or later installed first, per the download page. Only the macOS images bundle their own Java.
• Its future funding rests with one vendor. The ownership page makes no promise about licensing if Checkmarx support ends.

Official site: ZAP.

Caido

Caido was built from scratch as a lighter take on the manual Burp workflow. You get a proxy, an HTTP history you query using its own HTTPQL filter language, a replay tool, workflows for chaining actions, and a plugin system. It comes in two parts: a CLI binary that runs the proxy, on your laptop or a remote server, and a desktop app that connects to those instances and shows the interface in a webview.

The download page offers macOS, Windows and Linux builds, including separate Mac builds for Intel and Apple chips. Running the proxy on a VPS and driving it from your laptop is something Burp does not do out of the box. The Individual plan adds an AI assistant and lifts the free limits, and Team supports up to 50 seats.

Best for: Bug bounty hunters who want a modern manual proxy and can live with a closed-source tool.

Pricing:

• Basic: free forever, 1 user, 2 projects, 7 workflows, 3 plugins, 5 filter presets
• Individual: monthly or yearly (yearly saves 16%); price not published
• Team: per seat, up to 50 seats; price not published
• Enterprise: custom pricing, contact sales

Watch out for:

• The free plan can restore project backups but cannot create them, and it has no AI assistant.
• It is not open source. The FAQ says only some extensions in its plugin ecosystem are, so you cannot audit or fork the core proxy.

Official site: Caido.

mitmproxy

If your Burp habit is writing extensions, mitmproxy will feel familiar fast. It is a free, MIT-licensed proxy in three forms: mitmproxy for the terminal, mitmweb with a browser interface, and mitmdump for headless runs driven by Python add-ons. A dozen lines of Python can rewrite a header, strip a security check or log every token an app sends, which is much quicker than building a Java extension for Burp.

PyPI lists 12.3.1, uploaded on October 25, 2026, and the package now needs Python 3.12 or later. The project site offers a Windows installer and a Microsoft Store listing, Linux binaries, Homebrew and a Docker image. Mobile testers use it to watch app traffic after installing its CA certificate on the phone.

Best for: Developers and testers who want to change traffic with code, on a laptop or a server with no desktop.

Pricing:

• Free and open source, MIT licence

Watch out for:

• There is no vulnerability scanner. The site describes intercepting, modifying and replaying traffic, so finding bugs is up to you or to a separate scanner.
• Installing from PyPI needs Python 3.12 or newer, which older Linux servers may not have.

Official site: mitmproxy.

Nuclei

Nuclei, from ProjectDiscovery, is not a proxy. It is a scanner that runs YAML templates, each describing one request and what a vulnerable response looks like, against a list of hosts. The templates, which the README says come from thousands of security professionals, cover CVEs, exposed admin panels and misconfigurations. That makes it a good companion to a manual proxy, or a stand-in for Burp's scanner when you have hundreds of targets.

It is MIT-licensed and installs with go install on Go 1.24.2 or later, or through Docker. Writing your own template takes minutes, so a finding from a manual test can become a check you rerun on every release. ProjectDiscovery also sells a cloud platform on top of it and offers a free tier there with monthly limits.

Best for: Security teams and bug bounty hunters who scan many hosts for known issues at once.

Pricing:

• Nuclei engine and templates: free and open source, MIT licence
• ProjectDiscovery Cloud: free tier with monthly limits; Pro plan by sign-up, price not published

Watch out for:

• The README warns that the project is in active development and to expect breaking changes between releases. Pin a version in CI.
• It only finds what a template describes. Logic flaws and access control bugs still need a human with a proxy.

Official site: Nuclei.

Invicti

Readers who came here for Acunetix will find it under a new name. The old Acunetix pricing page now says Acunetix is Invicti Web + API. Invicti, formerly Netsparker, sells it next to its larger AppSec Core and AppSec Flex plans. These are scanners for a security team that owns dozens or hundreds of apps and wants scheduled DAST, API discovery and CI/CD hooks, which is closer to Burp Suite DAST than to Burp Pro.

Its selling point is proof-based scanning, where the scanner tries to confirm a flaw before reporting it, to cut false positives. Licensing counts each fully qualified domain as one target, and subdomains and ports count separately. Invicti also offers a newer Agentic Pentest product for a single app and its APIs, with a report in 24 hours.

Best for: AppSec teams replacing Burp Suite DAST or Acunetix across many sites.

Pricing:

• Web + API (formerly Acunetix): no public price, start a quote
• AppSec Core and AppSec Flex: no public price
• Agentic Pentest: $500 maximum per pentest
• Proof-of-concept licences for a trial; length not published

Watch out for:

• Web + API is cloud-hosted for now. The pricing page marks on-premises as coming soon, and only AppSec Flex lists on-prem and air-gapped deployment.
• Because every subdomain and port is a separate target, a sprawling estate can cost far more than the first quote suggests.

Official site: Invicti.

Fiddler Everywhere

Progress Telerik still sells Fiddler, now as Fiddler Everywhere for Windows, macOS and Linux. It captures HTTPS traffic, lets you edit and replay requests, and adds rules and mocks. It is a debugging proxy for developers more than a testing suite, so there is no scanner, Intruder or Collaborator equivalent.

Where it beats Burp is price for a team that only needs interception. The Lite plan is $7 per user per month on a yearly bill, and Pro is $13. Fiddler Classic, the old Windows app, is still free for non-commercial use but no longer in active development.

Best for: Developers and QA testers who inspect and mock API calls and do not need attack tooling.

Pricing:

• Lite: $7 per user per month billed yearly, or $10 monthly
• Pro: $13 per user per month billed yearly, or $19 monthly
• Enterprise: $37 per user per month, yearly only, 24-hour support
• Fiddler Classic: free for non-commercial use, Windows only

Watch out for:

• It needs an account login to start. A Telerik forum thread shows offline mode arrived only on the Enterprise tier, which matters on an isolated test network.
• A free trial is offered, but its length is not published.

Official site: Fiddler Everywhere. Our listing: Fiddler Everywhere.

HTTP Toolkit

Setting up Burp's certificate on an Android phone or a Docker container is a chore. HTTP Toolkit does that setup for you. Its home page lists browser windows, terminal sessions, Android and iOS apps, whole devices, Docker containers, and Node.js, Java, Python and Ruby processes as clients it can intercept. It is open source, with desktop builds for Windows, macOS and Linux.

The free Hobbyist tier lets you view and edit traffic by hand. Pro adds mocking, reusable rewrite rules, HAR import and export, and TLS passthrough, for $15 a month or $132 a year.

Best for: Mobile and backend developers who want to see what an app sends without a long proxy setup.

Pricing:

• Hobbyist: free
• Pro: $15 a month, or $132 a year
• Team: $24 per user per month, or $216 a year; the pricing page sends teams to sales

Watch out for:

• Mocking, rewrite rules and HAR export are all Pro features on the pricing page, so the free tier is for looking, not for repeatable tests.
• It has no scanner and no fuzzer, so it cannot stand in for Burp Pro on a pentest.

Official site: HTTP Toolkit.

How to choose

When to stay with Burp Suite

Stay with Burp Suite Professional if you do paid web pentests or serious bug bounty work. Its scanner, Collaborator for out-of-band bugs, full Intruder and the BApp Store add up to a toolkit none of the picks above matches in one place, and the free Web Security Academy labs are built around it.

Frequently asked questions