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Top 10 Inviciti Alternatives

APIs have transformed from simple technical interfaces into strategic business assets. Studies indicate that 35–62% of enterprises generate direct revenue from APIs, and for nearly 25%, APIs account for over 75% of total revenue. API first organizations accelerate time to market, enhance revenue retention, and improve customer trust by integrating security directly into their development and delivery workflows. Powered by DevOps, microservices, and cloud native architectures, APIs now play a central role in both growth and operational resilience.

Yet this rapid expansion also increases risk. According to industry reports, over 70% of APIs go undocumented or poorly monitored, and 60% of enterprises experience at least one API related security incident annually. Gaps in API coverage, undocumented endpoints, and static, periodic testing can leave sensitive data exposed, delay feature delivery, and elevate breach risk. As APIs increasingly handle personal, financial, and healthcare information, enterprises face rising regulatory pressure for continuous security, privacy protections, and proactive threat detection. Reliance on periodic scans or reactive testing is no longer sufficient.

Inviciti, while offering policy driven API scans and OpenAPI based validation, often leaves critical endpoints untested. Shadow, low traffic, and partner APIs frequently go undiscovered, remediation is manual and slow, and deployments require complex orchestration. Combined with high operational overhead, privacy risks from full spec ingestion, and limited pre production coverage, this can result in delayed fixes, blind spots, and increased compliance burden.

Organizations that treat application and API security as a driver of uptime, revenue, and customer trust need an approach that delivers real time protection, full lifecycle coverage, automated remediation, minimal manual effort, rapid deployment, and privacy first data handling.

This blog highlights the Top 10 Inviciti Alternatives, evaluated across API coverage, deployment ease, remediation automation, cost efficiency, and alignment with API first, DevSecOps driven development models.

When to Seek Alternatives to Inviciti

When evaluating Inviciti’s approach to API security, several recurring limitations begin to affect coverage, deployment speed, cost efficiency, and alignment with modern DevSecOps practices. These challenges often indicate the need for alternatives that provide continuous protection, deeper discovery, lower manual effort, and privacy conscious deployment.

The table below highlights key triggers and explains why they matter, from blind spots in low traffic APIs to high operational overhead and incomplete remediation, helping teams identify where Inviciti may fall short real world API driven environments.

Trigger
Why It Matters
Continuous Protection Gaps
Spec based scans and periodic network sampling leave APIs exposed between cycles, increasing breach risk for low traffic, internal, or partner routes.
Raising Total Cost Of Ownership
Maintaining OpenAPI imports, NTA agents, scan modules, and upgrade cycles drives unpredictable operational and cloud costs, often exceeding $100k–$500k annually.
Vendor Inducted Privacy Risk
Full OpenAPI spec ingestion and network traffic captures can expose sensitive request payloads, proprietary data, and PII if logs are not tightly controlled.
Deployment Friction
On-prem deployments require orchestrating multiple components (web server, scan agents, Auth Verifier, NTA, IAST bridge) and networking rules, delaying time to value by weeks.
Heavy Manual Overhead
Teams spend significant effort managing imports, configuring NTA thresholds, setting up authentication flows, and triaging voluminous findings rather than reducing real risk.
Limited API Visibility
Discovery depends on manual spec uploads, API hub crawls, and threshold based sampling; shadow, feature flagged, or low traffic endpoints often remain untested and untracked.
Static Reporting With Slow Remediation
Findings list generic policy violations with no auto ticketing or payload repro, forcing teams to reverse engineer fixes, extending remediation cycles from days to weeks.
Shallow Attack Simulation
Single request scans cannot emulate stateful or chained attack flows, leaving complex business logic and access control vulnerabilities undetected.
Lack of SDLC Coverage
Security is applied post build; new or updated endpoints require manual re-imports, creating inconsistent protection and reactive firefighting.

At a Glance: Inviciti the Best Alternatives

Inviciti has long positioned itself as an API security platform focused on spec validation and policy driven scans. While it can catch basic injections and schema mismatches, its reliance on static OpenAPI specs, periodic network sampling, and manual configuration introduces gaps in coverage, discovery, and remediation. For fast moving API first enterprises, these limitations can result in delayed vulnerability detection, extended remediation cycles, and higher operational overhead.

Modern alternatives provide continuous protection, deeper runtime visibility, automated remediation, and reduced manual effort, allowing teams to ship secure APIs faster while preserving sensitive data and lowering total cost of ownership.

Below are the leading Inviciti alternatives that deliver these capabilities:

  1. Levo.ai
  2. Akamai
  3. Salt Security
  4. Traceable.ai
  5. Orca Security
  6. Escape Security
  7. Akto
  8. Qualys
  9. Rapid7
  10. StackHawk

These platforms support automated discovery, real-time vulnerability detection, and integrated remediation, ensuring APIs are continuously protected without slowing CI/CD pipelines.

Here’s a side by side comparison of Inviciti versus Levo.ai, highlighting core business value, deployment agility, privacy risk, TCO, API visibility, attack simulation, and SDLC coverage, helping teams quickly identify which solution aligns best with modern, DevSecOps driven API security models.

Category
Inviciti
Levo.ai
Traceable.ai
Salt Security
Akamai
Orca Security
Akto
Qualys
Rapid7
Escape Security
StackHawk
Core Business Value
Periodic API scans; limited security depth.
Full lifecycle API security for faster, safer releases
Detect and block attacks in production; post-incident defense.
Production-focused; limited visibility; most vulnerabilities ship to production, impacting risk.
CDN edge API defense with high alert volume
Production-only dashboard; no impact on dev velocity, delivery timelines, or revenue.
Developer first API testing platform with strong shift left focus.
Elevated breach risk; API testing retrofitted onto web-app framework slows development cycles.
Delivers point-in-time DAST scans for compliance reporting, with limited continuous protection.
Primarily focused on static scans and schema generation, with limited runtime protection.
Security is limited to periodic scans of code-parsed endpoints without confirming actual API behavior. Hence, time-to-market slips and breach risk stays elevated
Primary Use Case
Schema based validation for basic injection or spec errors.
Automated security across dev to prod with CI/CD integration.
Reactive runtime defense, SOC workflows and forensic analytics.
WAF-based API security; monitors runtime traffic but lacks native API testing or pre-prod protection.
WAF style API protection for production workloads.
Runtime visibility and monitoring; limited to production misconfigurations.
Continuous discovery, testing, and runtime monitoring for dev teams.
Scheduled web-app and API scans. Standard OWASP Top 10 checks with limited business-logic testing.
Primarily used for periodic post-build scans rather than continuous runtime protection.
Suitable for pre-production schema generation, with limited runtime or pipeline integration.
Surface-level scans only. It cannot adapt to logic and traffic-based vulnerabilities, not suitable for testing real-world scenarios 
TCO
High due to multiple agents, modules, and infra dependencies.
1/10th the cost, avoids $100K–$500K annual waste in cloud and infra spend.
Captures full API traffic; high compute and storage costs; ROI scales poorly.
High due to data ingestion into SaaS, scaling infrastructure, and deployment complexity and manual configuration drive costs.
Very high from traffic mirroring across clouds.
High since all data is processed in SaaS. It lacks smart data capture, leading to bureaucracy and overhead.
Low TCO due to community/open source tier with pay as you grow pricing.
High due to multiple modules (VMDR, EASM, TotalAppSec) with per-module fees for each. Integration overhead increases TCO.
Requires dedicated scan engines and frequent rescans, causing high infra costs and operational effort.
High due to unpredictable cloud/AI costs tied to repo size, LLM usage, and manual overhead.
High per-scan costs and manual triage burden; lacks automation to filter real vulnerabilities.
Vendor-Induced Privacy Risk
Full network traffic and spec ingestion can expose payloads.
Privacy safe; <1% metadata processed, no sensitive data leaves the environment.
Full payload capture increases audit and compliance burden.
High risk with full traffic processed in SaaS. Sensitive data and production traffic risk exposure.
Data exported to Akamai SaaS
SaaS-based; scans workloads and APIs across environments including sensitive payloads, data processed in vendor cloud causing high risk
Minimal; runs locally without exporting sensitive data.
Consolidated cloud service; sensitive data exposure risk if tenant isolation or private-cloud controls misconfigured.
Full payload capture creates privacy risks and legal hurdles, complicating audits for regulated industries.
Ingests full source code and inferred schemas, risking exposure of secrets and proprietary data.
Minimal; runs in developer environments, but storing full repos and manual configs can expose comments or embedded secrets if not tightly controlled.
Best For
Teams running scheduled API scans.
Enterprises needing full lifecycle API security and compliance automation.
Teams focusing on runtime defense, SOC monitoring, and post-incident analysis.
Teams relying on WAFs for runtime protection. Not suited for shift-left, proactive API security.
Teams prioritizing CDN scale and resilience
Security teams needing runtime visibility. Not suitable for shift-left or proactive API security.
Developer centric startups or agile teams.
Teams needing compliance-focused scans across web apps and APIs; not optimized for API-first continuous security.
Teams focused on compliance reporting and point-in-time DAST scans, not proactive pre-prod security.
Teams looking for AST based solutions with static schemas, however, it is limited to single request and it is not suitable for chained, stateful, or session-based flows.
Developer-centric, API security testing in local development environment early in the SDLC.
Pricing
Transparent, per asset or per scan pricing.
Flexible per endpoint pricing.
Unclear post Harness merger
Enterprise-focused, contract-based pricing; often rigid at scale.
Rigid, volume tied pricing.
Enterprise-focused, bundled with CNAPP features, less flexible for API-only buyers.
Transparent and flexible, community edition available.
Enterprise-focused, bundled pricing with other Qualys modules.
Unclear post Harness merger
Enterprise-focused, contract-based pricing; often rigid at scale.
Enterprise-focused, custom pricing for larger teams at scale.
G2 Rating

Top 10 Inviciti Alternatives

For modern API driven ecosystems, teams are evaluating platforms that offer deeper API visibility, faster security validation, and broader protection coverage than Qualys.

Here are the top Inviciti alternatives that unify API discovery, automated testing, and runtime defense for cloud native and rapidly scaling environments.

1. Levo

Overview

Levo.ai is designed for modern, API first enterprises that need full lifecycle API security, not just periodic scans or post incident defense. Unlike Inviciti, which relies on static OpenAPI specs, NTA traffic agents, and periodic scans, Levo secures APIs continuously across the SDLC, from pre production testing to runtime monitoring, without slowing teams or creating privacy risks.

Leveraging an eBPF based sensor, Levo provides deep, kernel level visibility into every API, including internal, external, partner, and low traffic endpoints. It automatically generates comprehensive API documentation, maps sensitive data flows, and identifies vulnerabilities early in development. Inviciti’s visibility depends on imported specs and network sampling, leaving many internal, dynamic, or low traffic APIs untested.

Levo transforms API security from reactive to proactive. Instead of producing static test results or generic policy violations like Inviciti, Levo runs exploit aware, real data testing, verifying each alert before raising it. This reduces false positives and shrinks remediation cycles from months to days. Inline protection blocks only confirmed threats, ensuring zero disruption to legitimate traffic or application performance.

Levo’s privacy first architecture keeps all sensitive data within the customer environment, processing less than 1% of metadata in its SaaS control plane. In contrast, Inviciti’s NTA and OpenAPI ingestion can expose request payloads and proprietary API details if logs or specs are not tightly secured. Enterprises adopting Levo also enjoy up to 10 times lower infrastructure and egress costs, saving $100,000 to $500,000 annually while simplifying compliance.

Integrated directly into CI/CD pipelines, Levo automates shift left security with YAML and Python based customization, rapid deployment, and hybrid or on premises options. No inline agents, DPIAs, or long rollout cycles are required. Deployments complete in under an hour with minimal DevSecOps effort. Inviciti, by comparison, requires orchestrating multiple components, configuring scan agents and Auth Verifiers, and managing NTA traffic thresholds, delaying time to value by weeks.

Where Inviciti stops at periodic detection and generic vulnerability reporting, Levo secures the full API journey, helping enterprises build, test, and operate APIs faster, safer, and with superior cost, coverage, and privacy efficiency.

Platform Fit Across Enterprise Needs

Selecting the right API security platform depends on whether your priorities center on proactive prevention, runtime visibility, compliance assurance, or operational efficiency.

Each platform serves a distinct maturity level and team focus, and understanding where they excel or fall short helps align tools with enterprise security and growth goals.

Tool
Fits For
Breaks For
Invicti
DevSecOps teams needing web app + API scans for compliance.
Teams requiring continuous runtime defense.
Levo
API first, compliance driven organizations can achieve full API discovery (internal, external, shadow), integrate security into CI/CD, and automate remediation, all with fast deployment (~1 hour) and low egress costs (~1/10th).
Teams focused solely on CDN optimization without pre production security may not benefit.
Akamai
Enterprises leveraging Akamai’s CDN for production API defense.
Teams seeking shift left or SDLC wide coverage.
Salt Security
Large enterprises needing mature runtime protection and posture management.
Agile teams looking for lightweight, shift left security.
Traceable.ai
SOC teams needing runtime visibility and forensic analysis.
Teams requiring proactive, pre production testing.
Orca Security
Enterprises seeking unified cloud, workload, and API visibility.
API first teams needing pre production security.
Escape Security
Teams automating API security in CI/CD for REST/GraphQL.
Enterprises needing full runtime posture control.
Akto
Developer first orgs adopting shift left API testing in CI/CD.
Enterprises needing large scale runtime protection.
Qualys
Enterprises extending vulnerability management to APIs.
Developer led teams needing dynamic, shift left testing.
Rapid7
Security teams using Insight for runtime API monitoring.
Developer teams seeking integrated pre prod security.
StackHawk
Dev teams embedding API tests in CI/CD for early detection.
Enterprises needing continuous runtime protection.

API Security Feature Comparison

Provides full API visibility and discovery: internal, external, shadow, zombie, and third party APIs, enriched with auth, sensitivity, reachability, and runtime context.

Feature
Levo
Inviciti
API Inventory
Auto discovers shadow, zombie, internal, and third party APIs with auth, sensitivity, and reachability context
Inventory relies on manual spec uploads, API-gateway crawls, and NTA logs; low-traffic, internal, or partner APIs often remain undiscovered
API Documentation
Auto generates detailed OpenAPI/Postman specs (12+ params: auth, rate limits, changelogs)
Generates OpenAPI/Swagger/Postman specs from imports or infrequent crawls; missing metadata and drift issues are common
Sensitive Data Discovery
Detects and classifies PHI/PII/financial data at endpoint level with trace linked evidence
Captures full payloads via NTA and OpenAPI ingestion; exposes sensitive headers and PII if not tightly secured
API Security Testing
Continuous, auth aware exploit tests with zero false positives.
Spec validation and policy driven scans catch basic injections and schema mismatches but miss business logic flaws; static payloads only
API Monitoring
eBPF powered real time monitoring; prevents drift and data exposure pre release.
No native monitoring or anomaly detection; relies on external logs and manual review; new attack patterns go undetected
Vulnerability Mgmt.
Exploit validation, runtime based prioritization, auto assign to devs
Findings list policy violations with generic payload failures; no exploit validation or prioritization, manual triage required
Remediation Automation
Developer native fixes via Jira/Slack/IDE; auto generated patch code, reproducible payloads
Remediation stalls; no auto ticketing or payload repro, manual reverse engineering needed
Detection
high fidelity alerts tied to actual API behavior and identity; actionable without endless triage
Alerts tied to spec violations or NTA events; high false negatives for low traffic or complex flows
Protection
Inline protection; customizable rules; prevents traffic loss while blocking real threats
Inline blocking with generic rules; may impact legitimate traffic; customization requires manual config
MCP Server
Exposes programmable security data for custom reporting, automation, and AI integration
No programmable layer; provides static dashboards and manual reporting

Adoption Speed and Integration Speed

Metric
Inviciti
Levo
Deployment Ease
On-prem requires multiple components (web server, scan agents, Auth Verifier, NTA, IAST bridge), networking rules, and upgrade workflows; rollout delayed by weeks
Lightweight inline and passive sensors; deploys within hours with <1% traffic overhead; minimal DevSecOps effort
Customization to In-House Needs
Custom rules require manual edits or scripting; payloads fixed to generic policy bundles, limited adaptation to unique data flows or user roles
Highly flexible: YAML & Python rules, UI configurable sensors, supports new sensitive data types, CI/CD aligned
Manual Overhead Needed
High; teams manage OpenAPI imports, configure NTA thresholds, set up Auth Verifier flows, and triage multiple scanner outputs
Minimal; validated, exploit aware findings require almost no manual effort
SDLC Coverage
Limited; integrated into CI/CD but coverage restricted to defined endpoints; new endpoints require manual re-imports or agent tweaks
end to end: pre production through runtime with integrated testing and inline protection
Privacy Model
Captures network traffic and full OpenAPI specs; sensitive payloads may leave environment if not tightly secured
Privacy-preserving; sensitive data remains local; only metadata is sent to SaaS, reducing egress costs
CI/CD Fit
Partial; pipelines integration requires manual spec updates and agent configuration; shift left capabilities limited
Embedded into pipelines; shift left enabled; seamless integration into IDE, Jira, Slack

2.Akamai

Overview

Akamai Security delivers runtime first API protection through edge based WAFs and production monitoring, focusing on attack prevention, misconfiguration detection, and anomaly alerting. It offers SOC friendly dashboards and limited runtime visibility, primarily for external APIs, but lacks comprehensive internal or low traffic endpoint coverage. Pre production testing and shift left capabilities are minimal, and remediation guidance is generic, requiring manual follow up. Deployment relies on integrating with production traffic at the edge, which can introduce bureaucracy and delays, and data is processed in the cloud, increasing vendor induced privacy risk.

Inviciti provides automated API security across the SDLC, combining full discovery, pre production testing, and runtime protection. It builds behaviorally aware inventories for internal, partner, and external APIs, generates rich OpenAPI specs, and supports deep, context driven attack simulation, including business logic flaws and access control edge cases. Customizable payloads and automated remediation accelerate fix cycles and reduce manual effort. However, low traffic or undocumented endpoints may still require manual coverage, and operational overhead grows with the number of scans and imported specs.

Both platforms strengthen API security but in complementary ways: Akamai excels at production focused attack prevention and SOC integration, while Inviciti provides comprehensive shift left coverage, deep attack simulation, and automated remediation. Neither solution alone eliminates all blind spots, leaving organizations to balance edge based runtime protection with full SDLC security and developer centric automation.

Feature Comparison

Category
Inviciti
Akamai
Core Focus
Web along with API scanning built on static specs and crawls; retrofit API testing
Edge API security with WAF, bot management, and runtime threat protection
API Security Depth
Basic injections with schema checks; no stateful or business logic testing
Edge runtime focus; no deep internal API testing or sensitive data visibility
Compliance Support
Supports OWASP/API basics, but custom API flows remain untested
PCI, GDPR, SOC2 compliance via WAF and bot modules; no pre prod coverage
Deployment Model
Multi component on-prem/cloud setup; requires specs, NTA, and scanners
Cloud/CDN edge integration; minimal inline deployment effort
Best Suited For
Orgs wanting combined web/API scanning but not deep API layer security
Enterprises focused on edge protection, bot mitigation, and global CDN performance

Pros & Cons

Inviciti

Pros:

  • Provides unified web app and API scanning in one platform.
  • Supports on-prem deployments for regulated environments.
  • Auto generates basic OpenAPI specs from traffic for easier documentation.
  • Can detect standard OWASP Top 10 API issues through policy driven scans.

Cons:

  • API security is bolted on to a generic web app scanning framework, not purpose built for APIs.
  • Scans rely on static specs, NTA logs, and manual imports: shadow, internal, partner, and low traffic APIs often remain undiscovered.
  • Detection lacks depth: single request payloads miss multi step, stateful, and business logic vulnerabilities (BOLA, IDOR, auth chaining).
  • High manual overhead to maintain specs, configure auth flows, upload tokens, and triage noisy findings.
  • Heavy multi component on-prem architecture slows rollout and complicates maintenance.
  • Documentation drifts easily since specs aren’t reconciled with real runtime behavior.
  • No true runtime monitoring or anomaly detection, security remains periodic, leaving gaps between scans.

Akamai

Pros:

  • Strong global edge network with mature WAF and CDN capabilities.
  • Excellent DDoS resilience and traffic surge absorption.
  • Good runtime visibility for external facing APIs processed at the edge.
  • Ideal for organizations heavily invested in CDN/edge workloads.

Cons:

  • API security is bolted on and edge first, lacks depth, context, and full lifecycle coverage.
  • Cannot discover or protect internal, partner, low traffic, third party, or east-west APIs.
  • No API documentation, limited inventory metadata, and no sensitive data flow mapping.
  • High vendor induced privacy risk due to traffic mirroring and SaaS based inspection.
  • High manual overhead for policy tuning, dashboard triage, and reducing false positives.
  • Production only visibility; no pre production testing, no shift-left, and no SDLC alignment.

Verdict

  • Inviciti is best suited for teams seeking a traditional web app scanning platform with some API addons, but it struggles with API depth, coverage, and modern logic based vulnerabilities.
  • Akamai is ideal for organizations prioritizing edge performance, CDN/WAF protection, and DDoS defense, but API security remains limited, reactive, and production only.
  • Levo.ai remains the leading choice for end to end API security across the SDLC, offering complete API discovery, automated documentation, shift left testing, runtime monitoring, cost efficiency, privacy first design, and comprehensive protection for internal, external, and third party APIs, all without operational overhead.

Read More: Top 10 Akamai Security Alternatives

3. Salt Security

Overview

Salt Security delivers production centric API protection, built primarily around traffic ingestion, attack detection, and SOC analytics. It ingests full payloads to map active API behavior, sensitive data flows, and runtime anomalies, but the model remains reactive because visibility depends entirely on live traffic volume. Low traffic, internal, partner, and undocumented APIs often remain invisible, and the platform cannot validate behavior before release. Deployment is slow and heavy, requiring inline agents or mirroring, and full payload capture raises privacy and compliance complexity. Attack simulation depth is limited to single request patterns, leaving complex logic paths, chained flows, and authorization edge cases under tested.

Inviciti takes a spec first scanning approach, relying on uploaded OpenAPI files, API hub imports, or periodic network sampling. While this supports compliance driven scanning for known endpoints, it leaves large blind spots across shadow APIs, low traffic services, feature flagged routes, and dynamic paths. Testing is generic, payload generation is static, and findings lack contextual mapping to services or developers, slowing remediation. Runtime visibility and anomaly detection are absent, so misconfigurations and data leakage risks often surface only after deployment.

Both platforms provide partial coverage of the API attack surface, but from opposite ends: Salt focuses solely on runtime attack detection and SOC workflows, while Inviciti focuses on periodic scans of declared APIs. Neither delivers full stack, multi environment API discovery, behavioral testing, or developer friendly remediation. Gaps persist across low traffic and internal APIs, complex business logic flows, and pre production security, leaving organizations dependent on manual processes and post incident response rather than proactive coverage across the SDLC.

Feature Comparison

Category
Inviciti
Salt Security
Core Focus
Spec driven scanning with limited depth; depends heavily on uploaded OAS files and periodic crawls
Runtime API protection: attacks, sensitive data exposure, access misconfigs; full traffic analysis for threat prevention
API Security Depth
Only tests what’s defined in specs; poor coverage of dynamic or undocumented endpoints
Production runtime focus; minimal pre prod testing; strong coverage of active APIs
Compliance Support
OAS based validation and policy checks; limited business logic assurance
API level threat detection; limited pre prod coverage
Deployment Model
Requires on-prem components (web server, NTA, IAST bridge); heavy orchestration
Agent or gateway; full traffic ingestion; complex but well defined deployment
Best Suited For
Teams with strong spec discipline needing periodic API checks, not continuous security
Enterprises needing continuous runtime visibility and threat prevention, including sensitive data and misconfigurations

Inviciti

Pros:

  • Provides broad web app scanning capabilities extended to APIs through spec validation and policy based checks.
  • Supports on-prem deployments for regulated environments.
  • Automated discovery of live endpoints with basic OpenAPI generation from captured traffic.

Cons:

  • API security is bolted on and retrofitted to a generic web app engine; lacks deep API first visibility and logic testing.
  • Misses large portions of internal, shadow, low traffic, and partner APIs due to dependency on spec uploads and sparse NTA logs.
  • High operational overhead: teams must manage imports, configure NTA rules, validate specs, and triage noisy findings from multiple scanners.
  • Testing engine fires generic payloads only: no stateful, multi step, or role based attack simulation, leading to high false negatives.
  • No meaningful runtime monitoring or drift detection; security remains periodic and reactive.
  • Costs spike due to maintaining multiple modules, collectors, and manual upgrades across environments.

Salt Security

Pros:

  • Strong runtime visibility for high traffic external APIs through gateway/WAF integrations.
  • Can identify common OWASP API Top 10 issues using policy driven checks.
  • Supports hybrid deployments for organizations with sensitive production workloads.

Cons:

  • Production only focus, no meaningful shift left testing, leaving vulnerabilities in dev, staging, or pre prod environments undiscovered.
  • API discovery limited to mirrored traffic at the edge, missing internal, partner, third party, zombie, and low traffic APIs.
  • Very high cost due to full traffic ingestion, storage, and continuous processing.
  • Requires inline or mirrored deployment, leading to months long rollout cycles and extensive approvals.
  • No native API security testing engine, testing inherited from legacy tooling with limited logic and role-based attack simulation.
  • Limited customization and high manual overhead for tuning alerts and policies.

Verdict

  • Inviciti is suitable for teams needing web app first scanning with add on API coverage, provided they can tolerate periodic scans, manual configuration, and shallow API logic testing.
  • Salt Security best fits organizations seeking production only runtime visibility via WAF/gateway integrations, but it brings high costs, limited API discovery, and minimal shift left value.
  • Levo.ai remains the superior choice for teams requiring true end to end API security across the SDLC, offering complete API discovery, privacy first design, automated API testing, deep attack simulation, cost efficiency, and unified pre production with runtime protection without the operational burden.

Read More: Top 10 Salt Security Alternatives

4. Traceable ai

Overview

Traceable.ai focuses on runtime centric API protection, blocking attacks, detecting anomalies, and offering SOC friendly analytics in production environments. It captures full API payloads for monitoring and incident forensics, but its visibility is traffic dependent, so internal, partner, low traffic, and undocumented APIs often remain undiscovered. As a result, many mission critical services never enter its security pipeline.

Inviciti takes a fundamentally different approach by relying on manual spec uploads, gateway crawls, and network sampling to build API inventory. This leaves shadow, low traffic, partner, and feature flagged endpoints invisible. Because discovery is incomplete, testing remains surface level, built on generic payloads and policy bundles that miss business logic flaws, chained flows, and access control weaknesses. Runtime coverage is absent, monitoring is not built in, and remediation slows down due to static violation lists and manual triage.

Both platforms strengthen API security in different slices of the lifecycle: Traceable.ai offers better runtime visibility and reactive threat detection for active, high traffic APIs, while Inviciti provides scheduled, policy based scans tied to user supplied documentation. However, neither delivers full stack API security across environments. Traceable.ai lacks shift left depth and misses APIs without live traffic, while Inviciti lacks runtime monitoring, behavioral context, and automated, API specific testing. The result is persistent blind spots across internal, third party, and business critical endpoints that require continuous protection and deep, context aware validation.

Feature Comparison

Category
Inviciti
Akto
Core Focus
Policy driven scans using specs along with NTA sampling; missing dynamic/untracked APIs
Runtime API protection: reactive defense, detecting and blocking attacks in production, traffic capture for SOC analytics
API Security Depth
Limited dynamic payloads; misses business logic with chained flows; depends on imported specs
Production runtime focus; reactive; limited shift left; misses low traffic, internal, or partner APIs
Compliance Support
OWASP/API checks via policy sets; relies on user provided specs, hence, inconsistent coverage
PCI, GDPR, SOC2 via runtime monitoring; pre prod validation limited
Deployment Model
On-prem requires many components (web server, NTA, IAST bridge); slow and complex
Requires inline agents, network mirroring, or in-app instrumentation; heavy deployment overhead
Best Suited For
Teams with strong documentation looking for periodic policy based API scanning
SOC teams needing runtime visibility, attack detection, and post incident forensics

Inviciti

Pros:

  • Offers unified web app and API scanning with standard OWASP coverage.
  • Supports full on-prem deployments for regulated industries.
  • Can validate basic injections, schema mismatches, and simple authentication failures.

Cons:

  • API scanning is bolted on and retrofitted: misses business logic, role based, and multi step API attack paths.
  • Discovery depends on imported specs, gateway crawls, and limited NTA sampling; misses shadow, internal, partner, and low traffic APIs.
  • Heavy deployment footprint with multiple components to install (web server, scan agents, Auth Verifier, NTA, IAST bridge).
  • Generates high manual overhead: OpenAPI imports, configuring thresholds, auth flows, triaging multiple scanner outputs.
  • Documentation drifts easily, no auto reconciliation with runtime traffic.
  • Limited runtime or pre production monitoring; relies on periodic scans that leave large windows of exposure.
  • Attack simulation restricted to single request payloads; misses OWASP API Top 10 logic flaws.

Traceable.ai

Pros:

  • Strong runtime visibility with in depth attack forensics and active API attack blocking.
  • Provides fraud detection signals and good context aware threat analytics.
  • Supports on-prem deployments for air gapped or regulated environments.
  • Leverages runtime traffic to generate partial tests for active APIs.
  • Context driven detection for common API threats.

Cons:

  • Reactive by design: coverage is limited to production traffic; dev/staging APIs go untested.
  • Full payload capture leads to extremely high TCO along with vendor induced privacy risk.
  • Misses inactive, internal, partner, and low traffic APIs due to traffic dependent discovery.
  • Limited shift left capabilities; CI/CD integration remains shallow and post deployment.
  • High manual overhead for SOC teams to manage dashboards, alerts, exceptions.
  • Attack simulation lacks multi step, stateful, or role based flows, misses logic and access control bugs.
  • Now merged with Harness, making standalone API security procurement difficult.

Verdict

  • Inviciti is suited for teams seeking traditional web app scanning with basic API coverage, but its periodic, spec dependent model leaves major blind spots across shadow, internal, and business logic APIs.
  • Traceable.ai fits API first organizations that need deeper runtime detection, attack blocking, and behavioral forensics, though its traffic heavy architecture results in high cost, privacy concerns, and limited shift left value.
  • Levo.ai remains the strongest choice for end to end API security across the SDLC, offering full API discovery, automated testing, privacy first design, predictable low TCO, and continuous protection from development to production.

Read More: Top 10 Traceable Alternatives

5. Orca Security

Overview

Orca Security offers cloud security posture management with API visibility limited to misconfiguration detection rather than true API security. Its discovery is confined to external endpoints and surface level configuration metadata, missing internal, partner, third party, low traffic, and dynamically registered APIs. Since it does not ingest runtime traffic or application context, shadow and zombie APIs remain invisible and undocumented, creating blind spots across critical environments.

API monitoring is absent, and no real time anomaly detection or access control validation is performed. Orca cannot detect broken auth flows, data leaks, sensitive data exposure, or behavioral drift in live API traffic, leaving teams dependent on manual log reviews and secondary tooling. Security testing is not available, and there is no pre production coverage, shift left workflow, or automated remediation, requiring developers and security engineers to manually review findings and validate fixes.

As a result, Orca functions as an additional cloud misconfiguration dashboard rather than an end to end API security platform. It offers limited API visibility, no monitoring, no runtime protection, and no testing depth. Inviciti, despite its own gaps in discovery accuracy and automation, still provides more API centric scanning and policy driven validation than Orca. Neither platform delivers comprehensive API security, but Orca contributes even less to coverage, testing, and operational risk reduction, making it insufficient for organizations seeking complete API protection across the SDLC.

Feature Comparison

Category
Inviciti
Orca Security
Core Focus
Web app scanning retrofitted for APIs; limited API depth as scanning depends on uploaded specs and periodic crawls
Cloud security posture management and vulnerability detection across workloads, identities, and storage, not API specific
API Security Depth
No runtime insight; scans rely on static specs and intermittent discovery, leaving APIs exposed between scans
No native API security; focuses on misconfigurations and vulnerabilities in cloud assets, not API behavior or traffic
Compliance Support
Supports standard compliance checks but API compliance depends on user uploaded specs and manual validation
Supports PCI, ISO, SOC2, HIPAA for cloud workloads; limited API specific compliance visibility
Deployment Model
Heavy on-prem components (scan agents, NTA, IAST bridge); upgrades and networking config slow deployment
Agentless scanning for cloud accounts and workloads; faster setup but no API traffic visibility
Best Suited For
Enterprises standardizing on web app scanners and needing API coverage only for compliance, not runtime defense
Cloud security teams focused on asset inventory, misconfigurations, and vulnerability management, not runtime API protection

Inviciti

Pros:

  • Broad API scanning support with spec validation and policy driven checks.
  • Can detect basic injections, schema mismatches, and common OWASP issues.
  • Supports full on-prem deployment for regulated industries.

Cons:

  • API coverage gaps due to dependency on imported specs, NTA logs, and gateway crawls, misses low traffic, internal, partner, and shadow APIs.
  • Heavy operational overhead: multiple components (scan agents, Auth Verifier, NTA, IAST bridge) require complex setup and maintenance.
  • Payloads are generic and static, lacking dynamic, context-aware test generation, leading to high false negatives for access control and business logic flaws.
  • No real runtime monitoring; security remains periodic and reactive.
  • API documentation is not auto generated or reconciled, causing drift and poor developer experience.
  • High privacy risk if specs or collected network artifacts contain sensitive request payloads or proprietary data.

Orca Security

Pros:

  • Provides agentless cloud visibility and misconfiguration detection across cloud assets.
  • Can map sensitive data to endpoints at runtime for basic risk scoring.
  • SaaS first design simplifies initial onboarding for cloud only teams.

Cons:

  • No positive impact on Dev Velocity or API delivery, API security is runtime only and shallow.
  • API discovery is limited: misses internal, partner, third party, zombie, and shadow APIs due to lack of east–west visibility.
  • No API documentation, no automated testing, and no pre production validation, leaving most vulnerabilities undetected until production.
  • Processes customer data (including sensitive data) in SaaS only mode, increasing vendor induced privacy risk and compliance friction.
  • High manual overhead: developers must supply API documentation and security teams must manually conduct pentesting.
  • No on-prem option; unusable in isolated or regulated environments.
  • Cannot detect OWASP API Top 10 issues effectively: logic, chained, and multi step vulnerabilities remain untested.

Verdict

  • Inviciti fits teams seeking a traditional scanner with on-prem availability, but its spec dependent discovery, generic payloads, and high operational overhead limit its effectiveness for modern API first environments.
  • Orca Security is suitable for cloud posture monitoring but provides minimal API security depth, missing discovery, documentation, and shift left capabilities altogether.
  • Levo.ai continues to stand apart as the only platform delivering complete SDLC wide API security, automated discovery, zero egress privacy, deep behavioral testing, accurate monitoring, and end to end remediation, enabling teams to ship safer applications faster with drastically lower TCO.

6. Escape Security

Overview

Escape Security focuses on static API analysis by parsing repositories to infer endpoint schemas, generating one time OpenAPI definitions, and surfacing basic schema flaws pre deployment. Its visibility is limited to code declared routes, which means dynamic, runtime registered, partner, and third party APIs remain undiscovered. Since the platform lacks runtime telemetry, sensitive data mapping, or behavioral insight, API coverage is partial and critical business logic or access control flaws often slip into production. Testing is static and single request oriented, relying on AST rules rather than real HTTP interactions, so multi step, stateful, and role based exploits remain undetected. Remediation is manual because findings lack payload reproduction, developer mapping, or automated ticketing. Costs scale unpredictably due to repository size and AI processing, and vendor risk increases because full source code, comments, and embedded secrets may be ingested into the SaaS.

Inviciti relies on periodic scans driven by imported specs, gateway crawls, and network traffic sampling, so inventory misses low traffic, internal, and shadow APIs. Testing remains policy based and generic because payloads are drawn from a fixed library, not from runtime behavior, leading to high false negatives in complex API logic. Documentation is derived only from uploaded specs and drifts quickly since there is no real time reconciliation with live traffic. Remediation slows down since violations are static lists without reproducible steps or contextual developer assignment. Deployment is heavy due to multiple components, on prem modules, authentication verifiers, and NTA collectors, resulting in sluggish time to value. With full payload captures and extensive log ingestion, vendor induced privacy risk increases for regulated industries.

Both platforms offer partial visibility and rely heavily on pre production scanning, but in different ways: Escape focuses on static code derived schemas and misses anything not explicitly declared in repositories, while Inviciti depends on imported specs and intermittent NTA logs that never capture full behavior. Neither platform delivers comprehensive discovery, runtime aware testing, or automated remediation. As a result, critical internal, partner, and dynamic endpoints remain unprotected, documentation drifts, and complex access control flaws escape into production, leaving security teams reactive rather than preventative.

Feature Comparison

Category
Inviciti
Escape Security
Core Focus
Spec driven API scanning using imported OAS/Postman specs with periodic network sampling; misses undocumented/low traffic endpoints
Pre production API protection: auto generates schemas and tests from code repos to catch issues before release
API Security Depth
Limited to policy based scans; depends on uploaded specs and gateway data; high false negatives on logic/role based flaws
Pre production coverage via static analysis and schema based tests; lacks runtime observability and live traffic validation
Compliance Support
OWASP/API Top 10 checks via spec based scans; lacks behavioral validation or runtime compliance
Compliance oriented testing for OWASP, PCI, SOC2; no runtime assurance or behavioral attack simulation
Deployment Model
Multi component on-prem/SaaS (web server, NTA, Auth Verifier, scan agents); high infra overhead
Connects directly to code repositories; moderate setup due to parser and repo configuration
Best Suited For
Security teams needing spec driven API scanning and compliance checks without deep runtime protection
DevSecOps teams seeking shift left API testing and compliance validation during development

Inviciti

Pros:

  • Offers a full on prem edition suitable for regulated industries.
  • Provides policy driven API scans with basic OWASP checks.
  • Supports multiple scan engines for traditional web app security use cases.

Cons:

  • API security is bolted on: discovery relies on imported specs, NTA logs, and gateway crawls, leaving major gaps, internal, partner, low traffic, and shadow APIs remain undetected.
  • Testing uses generic, static payloads with no dynamic context: high false negatives and frequent blind spots in business logic and access control vulnerabilities.
  • Heavy deployment footprint with multiple components (Auth Verifier, NTA, IAST bridge, sensors), leading to weeks of setup and long approval cycles.
  • High manual overhead: teams must manage spec imports, configure traffic capture, tune policy bundles, and triage voluminous alerts across modules.
  • Costs rise unpredictably due to maintaining imports, network agents, and multiple scanners.
  • Documentation quickly drifts because reconciliation with real traffic is not automated.

Escape Security

Pros:

  • SAST based approach provides quick initial visibility into repository defined endpoints.
  • Lightweight SaaS deployment with rapid code connection setup.
  • Supports code level analysis for schema drift and basic spec generation.

Cons:

  • Discovers only code declared endpoints, misses 50%+ APIs including internal, partner, third party, runtime registered, feature flagged, and low-traffic APIs.
  • No runtime visibility, no behavioral context, and no sensitive data flow detection.
  • Security testing is static and shallow: cannot emulate real HTTP flows, authentication, chained sequences, role based logic, or OWASP API Top 10 scenarios.
  • No monitoring, no pre production or staging coverage, and no protection, security remains reactive and incomplete.
  • Heavy privacy risk: full source code, comments, secrets, and inferred schemas are ingested and stored in the vendor’s SaaS.
  • High manual overhead: engineers must script auth flows, tune AST rules, configure tests per endpoint, and review large volumes of generic findings.
  • No on-prem option, unsuitable for air gapped and regulated industries.

Verdict

  • Inviciti is better suited for teams needing a traditional, policy based scanner with on-prem deployment, but it struggles with API first environments due to limited discovery, generic testing, heavy deployment, and high manual overhead.
  • Escape Security fits teams looking for a quick, code based analysis layer, but offers no runtime context, incomplete discovery, and shallow testing, leaving most real API risks undetected.
  • Levo.ai remains the superior choice, providing full API discovery, deep context aware testing, privacy first architecture, and end to end SDLC coverage that reduces manual effort while strengthening security posture and accelerating application delivery.

7. Akto

Overview

Akto focuses on pre production API scanning with a catalogue driven workflow that depends heavily on user provided specifications, gateway connectors, and periodic network sampling. It tests APIs with generic policy bundles that flag basic injection flaws and schema mismatches, but lacks dynamic payload generation, context aware testing, or automated authentication handling. Since discovery is rooted in spec uploads and threshold based traffic capture, internal, low traffic, partner, and shadow APIs often never enter the inventory at all. Runtime monitoring and anomaly detection are absent, leaving security teams blind between scans and forcing them to rely on external logs for incident investigation. Remediation cycles slow down as findings consist of static policy violations without payload reproduction, developer mapping, or auto ticketing, demanding manual triage across multiple scanning modules.

Inviciti follows a similar catalogue centric model but adds more operational overhead due to its multi module deployment pattern that includes NTA collectors, on prem scanners, auth verifiers, and periodic spec crawls. Discovery remains incomplete because dynamic routes, feature flagged services, and undocumented endpoints never surface unless manually exercised. Testing stays policy based with limited metadata awareness and no support for role based flows or chained multi step attack paths. Runtime visibility is constrained to what NTA logs capture after repeated traffic, so sensitive data flows, internal service calls, and access control paths remain opaque. Remediation remains largely static as teams receive raw violations with no reproducible payloads, no developer attribution, and no automated mapping to service owners, slowing time to fix.

Both platforms aim to support API security through periodic scanning and inventory management, but in complementary ways. Akto emphasizes ease of use and lightweight scans driven by imported specifications, while Inviciti expands the architecture with additional components to improve network sampling and gateway driven visibility. However neither solution provides full stack API coverage, dynamic runtime aware testing, or continuous monitoring, leaving blind spots across internal services, low traffic endpoints, multi step business logic paths, and access control vulnerabilities that require deeper behavioral analysis and shift left automation.

Feature Comparison

Category
Inviciti
Akto
Core Focus
Pre production API scanning: imports OpenAPI specs and performs policy based vulnerability tests before release
API vulnerability scanning and compliance via scheduled scans across APIs/web apps/cloud; reactive fixes, no runtime protection
API Security Depth
Spec driven scans with static payloads; detects surface level flaws but misses complex logic and chained vulnerabilities
Scan only; no runtime visibility or prevention; limited API specific depth
Compliance Support
Pre production compliance validation (OWASP, PCI, SOC2); lacks runtime monitoring or drift detection
OWASP, PCI, API compliance via scheduled scans; no runtime enforcement
Deployment Model
On-prem setup with multiple modules (scanner, NTA, Auth Verifier); moderate deployment effort and maintenance load
SaaS/on-prem modules; requires VMDR/EASM/TotalAppSec integration; moderate to high setup
Best Suited For
DevSecOps teams focusing on pre production API testing, compliance assurance, and pipeline integration
Teams needing periodic vulnerability assessments, audit reporting, regulatory compliance

Inviciti

Pros:

  • Offers unified Web and API scanning with support for OWASP Top 10 and standard API checks.
  • Full on prem edition available for regulated industries.
  • Policy driven scanning helps identify basic schema mismatches and injection patterns.

Cons:

  • API testing is retrofit onto a generic web app scanner, missing business logic and access control flaws.
  • API coverage depends heavily on manual spec uploads and NTA logs, leaving undocumented and low traffic routes undiscovered.
  • High operational overhead from managing multiple scan agents, NTA thresholds, and fragmented findings.
  • Documentation and inventory often drift as specs aren’t auto reconciled with actual traffic.
  • Attack simulation is shallow, single request tests miss chained, stateful, and role based API exploits.
  • Findings are generic; no payload reproduction, developer mapping, or automated ticketing slows remediation.
  • No built in monitoring; relies on external log aggregation for runtime anomaly detection.

Akto

Pros:

  • Automated endpoint discovery with a broad test library for common API issues.
  • Generates basic OpenAPI specs from captured traffic to support documentation.
  • Supports self hosted traffic collectors for teams with on-prem needs.

Cons:

  • Discovery misses low traffic, internal, partner, and dynamic APIs, leaving critical gaps.
  • Testing relies on generic, pre built payloads with limited depth, causing high false positives and false negatives.
  • Requires extensive manual configuration for authentication, role definitions, and scan tuning.
  • No continuous monitoring; security is limited to periodic scans without real time protection.
  • High privacy risk as traffic captures and recordings may expose sensitive data without built in scrubbing.
  • Deployment can take days/weeks due to connectors, collectors, and manual approvals.

Verdict

  • Inviciti is better for organizations seeking a unified web and API scanning platform with on-prem options, though its API capabilities are limited by drift, shallow attack simulation, and high manual overhead.
  • Akto is suitable for teams needing basic API scanning and lightweight spec generation but can struggle with depth, accuracy, and coverage, especially where internal, partner, or low traffic APIs are critical.
  • Levo.ai remains the preferred choice for modern engineering and security teams looking for automated, end to end API security across the SDLC, offering complete discovery, privacy first architecture, real time monitoring, zero manual overhead, and deep context driven security testing that prevents vulnerabilities long before production.

8. Qualys

Overview

Qualys provides API security as an extension of its broader vulnerability and asset inventory platform, relying on scheduled scans, static spec ingestion, and connector based discovery rather than continuous, behavior aware monitoring. API visibility is partial because inventory is stitched together from VMDR assets, EASM crawls, gateway connectors, and user uploaded OAS files, leaving internal, partner, low traffic, and undocumented endpoints undiscovered. Since Qualys does not observe live API traffic or sensitive data flows, misconfigurations, broken access controls, and exposure patterns remain invisible until the next scheduled scan.

API testing is retrofit into a generic web application scanning framework, offering OWASP level checks and policy based payloads but no dynamic payload generation, authentication automation, or business logic coverage. Stateful and multi step attacks cannot be simulated, resulting in missed vulnerabilities across high value, complex, and role dependent flows. Documentation is limited to user supplied specs with no auto reconciliation, causing drift that affects integration, compliance, and downstream teams.

Operationally, deploying Qualys for API security requires configuring multiple modules, scan profiles, and connectors across VMDR, EASM, TotalCloud, and TotalAppSec. This multi product architecture adds licensing overhead, infrastructure dependencies, and months of rollout time. Manual work becomes significant as teams curate API lists, maintain specs, tune policies, and triage mixed web app and API findings without meaningful remediation guidance or payload reproduction.

Overall, Qualys enhances perimeter visibility and supports compliance focused API scanning, but its API capabilities remain bolt on and periodic. Without real time monitoring, behavioral discovery, dynamic testing, or context aware remediation, organizations experience blind spots across internal, partner, and low traffic services, slower remediation cycles, and elevated breach and compliance risk.

Feature Comparison

Category
Inviciti
Qualys
Core Focus
pre production API scanning: imports OpenAPI specs and performs policy based vulnerability tests before release
Unified web app and API scanning: scheduled scans for compliance, vulnerability discovery, and dashboard metrics
API Security Depth
Spec driven scans with static payloads; detects surface level flaws but misses complex logic and chained vulnerabilities
Policy driven, single request testing; cannot simulate complex or chained attacks; limited depth; no runtime protection
Compliance Support
pre production compliance validation (OWASP, PCI, SOC2); lacks runtime monitoring or drift detection
Covers OWASP, PCI, SOC2 via scheduled scans; lacks runtime monitoring, internal API coverage, or drift detection
Deployment Model
On-prem setup with multiple modules (scanner, NTA, Auth Verifier); moderate deployment effort and maintenance load
Requires multiple Qualys modules (VMDR, EASM, TotalAppSec) and API gateway connectors; initial deployment can take months; high integration effort
Best Suited For
DevSecOps teams focusing on pre production API testing, compliance assurance, and pipeline integration
Security and compliance teams needing scheduled scanning, reporting, and audit coverage; limited real time or production protection

Inviciti

Pros:

  • Provides a unified scanning engine with support for web apps and APIs in a single dashboard.
  • Offers on-prem deployment for regulated industries needing strict data control.
  • Automated endpoint discovery through traffic connectors and imported API specs.

Cons:

  • API discovery is incomplete, inventory depends heavily on uploaded specs, NTA logs, and gateway imports, missing shadow, low traffic, and internal APIs.
  • Generic, policy based payloads lead to high false negatives for business logic and access control vulnerabilities.
  • Heavy manual setup: teams must configure NTA thresholds, Auth Verifier flows, OpenAPI imports, and triage findings from multiple scanners.
  • High operational overhead due to maintaining multiple modules and infrastructure components.
  • Documentation frequently drifts since the platform cannot auto reconcile specs with real traffic.
  • Attack simulation lacks stateful or multi step flows, missing real world OWASP API Top 10 exploit paths.

Qualys

Pros:

  • Broad vulnerability and asset platform with API scanning integrated alongside VM, EASM, and cloud modules.
  • Supports on-prem, appliances, and hybrid deployments for large enterprises.
  • Strong for compliance oriented teams needing OWASP API Top 10 coverage within a consolidated platform.

Cons:

  • API security is bolted onto a generic web scanning framework, not built ground up for APIs.
  • Coverage gaps persist: many internal, low traffic, and partner APIs remain undiscovered.
  • Deployment requires configuring multiple Qualys modules, making rollout long and resource intensive.
  • Testing depth is limited to basic OWASP checks; no dynamic payload engineering or role based chaining.
  • Manual effort required to curate API inventories, tune policies, and triage mixed findings.

Verdict

  • Inviciti is better suited for teams seeking a combined web app and API scanner with on-prem availability, but its API security depth is limited, heavily manual, and dependent on static specs that create blind spots and slow remediation.
  • Qualys fits enterprises already invested in the Qualys ecosystem and needing compliance driven, bundled API scanning, but gaps in API discovery, lack of real time monitoring, high TCO, and shallow testing depth limit its effectiveness for modern API first architectures.
  • Levo.ai remains the leading choice for organizations needing end to end API security across the SDLC, delivering full API discovery, privacy first design, automated testing, real time monitoring, and rapid remediation at a fraction of the operational cost.

9. Rapid7

Overview

Rapid7 provides point in time DAST scanning for APIs, focusing on compliance driven assessments rather than continuous security posture improvement. Its crawler based discovery frequently misses authenticated, low traffic, internal, and partner APIs, leaving large portions of the attack surface untested. Since Rapid7 lacks real monitoring or runtime visibility, misconfigurations and access control flaws ship to production and remain undetected until the next scheduled scan. Testing is surface level, limited to OWASP style payloads, with no role based logic coverage, chained attacks, or behavioral validation. Remediation is slow because findings are generic and require manual decoding before developers can act.

Inviciti relies on manual spec uploads, gateway crawls, and threshold based sampling to build API inventory, resulting in incomplete discovery and drift across environments. Runtime visibility is minimal and dependent on NTA logs that do not capture low traffic or shadow endpoints. Testing is periodic and policy driven, using static payload libraries that miss business logic abuse, complex access control vulnerabilities, and multi step flows. Documentation comes from imported or infrequently crawled specs without real time reconciliation, causing drift, integration failures, and compliance gaps. Remediation requires interpreting raw policy violations without payload reproduction or developer mapping, slowing fix cycles.

Both tools offer periodic scans suited for audit and compliance needs, but neither provides true API security depth. Rapid7 remains limited by crawl led discovery and shallow single request testing, while Inviciti struggles with incomplete inventory, high manual overhead, and documentation drift. Neither platform delivers continuous monitoring, context aware remediation, or robust shift left coverage, leaving organizations exposed across internal, dynamic, and business critical API flows.

Feature Comparison

Category
Inviciti
Rapid7
Core Focus
pre production API scanning: imports OpenAPI specs and performs policy based vulnerability tests before release
Point in time DAST scans focused on compliance reporting, not continuous API protection
API Security Depth
Spec driven scans with static payloads; detects surface level flaws but misses complex logic and chained vulnerabilities
Stateless, generic OWASP payloads; no complex logic, auth, or multi step attack simulation
Compliance Support
pre production compliance validation (OWASP, PCI, SOC2); lacks runtime monitoring or drift detection
Meets compliance scan requirements; lacks continuous posture assessment or drift detection
Deployment Model
On-prem setup with multiple modules (scanner, NTA, Auth Verifier); moderate deployment effort and maintenance load
On-prem scan engines along with manual auth setup; rollout slow and configuration heavy
Best Suited For
DevSecOps teams focusing on pre production API testing, compliance assurance, and pipeline integration
Teams needing periodic compliance scanning rather than deep or continuous API security

Inviciti

Pros:

  • Offers unified web app and API scanning with standard OWASP Top 10 coverage.
  • Supports on-prem deployments with a full featured scanner footprint.
  • Can generate basic OpenAPI specs from captured traffic for easier documentation.

Cons:

  • API security is retrofit into a web app framework, not built for API first architectures.
  • Discovery relies on specs, gateway crawls, and periodic NTA sampling, shadow, low traffic, partner, and internal APIs often remain missing.
  • Testing uses generic, single request payloads that miss complex logic flaws, role based access issues, and multi step exploits.
  • High manual overhead: teams must manage spec imports, configure NTA thresholds, auth flows, and triage large, noisy findings.
  • Heavy on-prem infrastructure needs multiple components (scan agents, NTA, Auth Verifier), slowing rollout and maintenance.
  • No continuous monitoring, security remains periodic, not real-time.
  • Privacy exposure risk due to capturing traffic, ingesting full specs, and storing sensitive request patterns.

Rapid7

Pros:

  • Strong DAST engine with broad vulnerability scanning coverage.
  • Useful for compliance driven organizations needing periodic reports.
  • Mature ecosystem with integrations across observability and security tooling.

Cons:

  • Designed for point in time scans, leaving APIs unprotected between runs.
  • API security is bolt on; OWASP only templates miss business logic and access control vulnerabilities.
  • Full payload capture during scans introduces privacy and procurement hurdles, especially for BFSI/healthcare.
  • Requires heavy setup: on-prem scan engines, manual auth scripting, token handling, and reconfiguration for each build.
  • No real time monitoring or drift detection, misconfigurations slip into production unnoticed.
  • High operational overhead due to repeated rescans, scan failures, and manual triage.
  • Discovery is crawler based and misses authenticated, inactive, or internal APIs, leading to false confidence.

Verdict

  • Inviciti is suitable for teams wanting traditional web app scanning with basic API coverage, but gaps in discovery, logic testing, and runtime visibility limit its effectiveness for modern, API first architectures.
  • Rapid7 fits organizations focused on compliance reporting and broad DAST coverage but offers minimal API protection between scans and requires significant manual setup.
  • Levo.ai remains the superior choice for teams seeking comprehensive, continuous, and privacy first API security across the full SDLC, delivering automated discovery, deep behavioral testing, real time monitoring, and drastically lower TCO compared to legacy scanners.

10. StackHawk

Overview

StackHawk focuses on developer centric API security testing by running lightweight, code driven scans during build and pre deployment stages. It analyzes code declared endpoints and executes static, single request payloads to identify common OWASP style flaws, making it useful for quick CI checks but insufficient for complex API architectures. Because discovery is limited to what is present in source repositories, a large share of internal, dynamic, partner, and low traffic APIs never enter its catalog, resulting in incomplete coverage and missed vulnerabilities. Runtime context is absent, so StackHawk cannot detect broken access controls, sensitive data exposure, or behavioral flaws tied to real traffic patterns. Testing depth remains shallow, as chained flows, multi step attacks, and role based abuse cases are not simulated. Remediation is manual, driven by raw findings that require engineering time for decoding and prioritization.

Compared to Inviciti, which relies on periodic scans, imported specs, and network sampling to build inventory and run policy based API tests, StackHawk offers faster setup and developer friendly workflows but suffers from even narrower visibility and weaker testing depth. Inviciti at least validates APIs mapped through gateway crawls, spec uploads, and NTA logs, whereas StackHawk tests only the endpoints defined in code, leaving high risk runtime only routes undiscovered and untested. Both platforms miss advanced logic vulnerabilities, rely on static payload libraries, and produce generic findings without environment aware remediation guidance. Both lack real time monitoring, automated discovery, or end to end API visibility.

Together, they represent complementary but incomplete approaches: StackHawk accelerates early stage CI checks for code visible endpoints, while Inviciti provides periodic perimeter level scans based on imported specifications. Neither delivers full SDLC coverage, behavioral testing, or runtime context, leaving substantial gaps across internal services, complex authentication flows, sensitive data paths, and business critical APIs that require deeper simulation and continuous monitoring.

Feature Comparison

Category
Inviciti
StackHawk
Core Focus
Static/spec based scanning across web and APIs; retrofitted API testing inside a web app scanner
Pre production API testing: scans APIs during CI/CD using OpenAPI imports and automated DAST tests
API Security Depth
Generic OWASP checks; lacks advanced logic, auth automation, and multi step validation
pre production focus; static scans validate common flaws but miss complex logic and role based issues
Compliance Support
OWASP Top 10 via web app framework; limited API first depth
OWASP, PCI, SOC2 compliance through pre prod scans; no runtime visibility or continuous assurance
Deployment Model
Multi component install (web server, agents, IAST/NTA); complex and time consuming
Lightweight CI/CD plugin or SaaS; easy to deploy but no live API observability
Best Suited For
Teams needing unified web/app/API scanning but not deep API coverage
DevSecOps teams embedding API security scans into build pipelines for faster pre prod validation

Inviciti

Pros:

  • Provides a unified scanning engine with support for web apps and APIs in a single dashboard.
  • Offers on-prem deployment for regulated industries needing strict data control.
  • Automated endpoint discovery through traffic connectors and imported API specs.

Cons:

  • API discovery is incomplete, inventory depends heavily on uploaded specs, NTA logs, and gateway imports, missing shadow, low traffic, and internal APIs.
  • Generic, policy based payloads lead to high false negatives for business logic and access control vulnerabilities.
  • Heavy manual setup: teams must configure NTA thresholds, Auth Verifier flows, OpenAPI imports, and triage findings from multiple scanners.
  • High operational overhead due to maintaining multiple modules and infrastructure components.
  • Documentation frequently drifts since the platform cannot auto reconcile specs with real traffic.
  • Attack simulation lacks stateful or multi step flows, missing real world OWASP API Top 10 exploit paths.

StackHawk

Pros:

  • Developer centric tooling that integrates easily into CI for code level scans.
  • Fast setup for basic scanning with a Docker based scanner.
  • Good for teams needing lightweight, surface level API checks in early development cycles.

Cons:

  • Discovery limited to code parsed endpoints, cannot detect runtime registered, partner, third party, or internal APIs.
  • Testing is purely static and single request; stateful, session based, or multi step attacks (BOLA/IDOR) go undetected.
  • High false positives and missed logic flaws due to lack of runtime context or tailored payloads.
  • No API documentation, no sensitive data flow visibility, and no runtime monitoring.
  • Lacks on-prem traffic visibility; cannot confirm real API behavior or detect API drift.
  • Requires developers and security teams to manually configure tests, auth flows, and custom rules, creating significant operational overhead.

Verdict

  • Inviciti suits mid enterprise teams that need a combined web app and API scanner with optional on-prem deployments, but its dependency on manual imports, generic payloads, and multi module complexity leaves major blind spots for modern API ecosystems.
  • StackHawk is better for developer workflows requiring quick, code first scans, yet its static, single request testing and lack of runtime context cause most real API vulnerabilities to remain undiscovered.
  • Levo.ai remains the clear leader, delivering complete API discovery, privacy first architecture, zero manual overhead testing, and deep pre production along with runtime coverage built natively for API first organizations.

Conclusion

APIs now power the backbone of digital systems, but legacy DAST centric platforms like Invicti leave significant gaps. API coverage is limited, multi step flows remain untested, and reliance on scan based workflows slows teams operating in microservices and cloud native environments.

Levo.ai solves these challenges by combining API discovery, shift left testing, runtime protection, sensitive data detection and automated remediation in one unified platform. Teams remove manual overhead, eliminate false positives, and secure APIs continuously from development through production.

For organizations that need purpose built API security rather than extending web scanning tools, Levo offers full spectrum, context aware protection aligned with modern engineering velocity.

Choosing the right API security platform requires automation, depth, and real time visibility. Unlike Invicti, which depends on scheduled scans and lacks behavioral context, Levo delivers live insights, exploit aware detection, and seamless CI CD integration for proactive defense.

Adopting Levo empowers teams to accelerate releases, simplify AppSec operations, and secure all API endpoints without the limitations of traditional DAST tooling. Achieve complete lifecycle API protection with Levo and future proof your API ecosystem.

Achieve complete API security with Levo and future proof your APIs.

Book your DEMO today to implement API security seamlessly.

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