Acunetix vs Netsparker (Invicti): Which DAST to Choose in 2026

Acunetix and Netsparker are two of the best-known dynamic application security testing (DAST) tools. They find vulnerabilities in web applications and APIs by actively probing them from the outside, the way an attacker would.

One thing to get straight before you compare them: Netsparker was rebranded to Invicti in 2021, and Acunetix and Invicti are both owned by the same parent company, Invicti Security. Invicti Security started as the maker of Netsparker, later acquired Acunetix, and now sells both products off a shared scan engine. So this is not really a fight between two rival vendors — it is a choice between two products from the same house, aimed at different buyers. Acunetix is positioned as the leaner, SMB-facing standalone scanner; Invicti (the former Netsparker) is the enterprise platform. Throughout this article we use "Netsparker (Invicti)" to make that lineage clear.

Feature Comparison Table: Acunetix vs Netsparker (Invicti)

Pricing

Neither product publishes a price list. Both Acunetix and Netsparker (Invicti) are commercial, quote-based tools sold through sales conversations, so any "$X per year" figure you see quoted online should be treated as a rough estimate, not a real rate card.

Licensing generally depends on how many web applications, targets or FQDNs you scan, and how many users or concurrent scans you need. Acunetix uses per-target pricing and is the cheaper entry point, typically with a small minimum target count. Invicti (former Netsparker) is aimed at larger estates — think dozens of targets, role-based access and centralized management — and is priced accordingly.

Because both are sister products under Invicti Security, the sales motion often ends up being "which of our two products fits your size," not a genuine bake-off between competitors. Get a quote for each and compare against your actual target count.

If you only need quick, ad-hoc checks rather than a full enterprise DAST license, Secably offers a free website vulnerability scanner for immediate insight at no cost. For continuous monitoring, Secably pricing starts at $19/month after a free tier.

Features

Both tools deliver strong DAST coverage and find the usual high-impact web vulnerabilities: SQL Injection, Cross-Site Scripting (XSS), Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF), and more. Since they share a scan engine under Invicti Security, raw detection accuracy is effectively similar — the differences are in verification, packaging and scale.

Acunetix ships AcuSensor, its optional IAST component. AcuSensor runs inside the application and supports PHP, Java, .NET and Node.js. It gives deeper visibility into code execution and can point to the exact file and line where a vulnerability lives, bridging the gap between black-box DAST and code-level detail.

Netsparker (Invicti)'s signature feature is Proof-Based Scanning. This is a verification technique, not IAST: when the scanner finds a likely vulnerability, it attempts a safe, read-only exploit and produces a proof-of-exploit for the finding. Confirmed results ship with evidence attached, which cuts false-positive triage dramatically. Invicti also offers a separate IAST sensor for languages where deeper inspection helps — so on the Invicti side, Proof-Based Scanning (verification) and IAST (in-app inspection) are two distinct things, often conflated.

On Software Composition Analysis (SCA), the two diverge. Invicti bundles SCA alongside DAST and IAST to flag vulnerable third-party libraries. Acunetix's SCA story is thinner — it is limited and dependent on integrations or higher tiers rather than a first-class bundled capability. If dependency/supply-chain scanning matters to you, confirm exactly what each quote includes.

Both handle modern API security testing — REST and GraphQL, with Postman and OpenAPI (Swagger) import — and both cope with JavaScript-heavy apps, single-page applications (SPAs) and authenticated scans. In practice the enterprise product tends to have the more polished, native CI/CD and integration surface, while Acunetix gets you scanning faster with less setup.

Reporting is comparable on both: OWASP Top 10, PCI DSS, HIPAA and ISO 27001 templates, plus customizable reports with remediation guidance for different stakeholders.

Ease of Use

Both interfaces are built for security practitioners and aim to streamline vulnerability management. They are professional, functional tools rather than consumer software.

Acunetix is generally the quicker to stand up. Setting up basic scans is straightforward, and penetration testers can configure and launch targeted assessments fast. That is a large part of why Invicti keeps it as the SMB-facing product — less configuration, sooner to first scan.

Netsparker (Invicti) is the broader platform, and that breadth brings a steeper initial learning curve. Once configured, though, its automation and centralized management pay off at scale. Proof-Based Scanning is a real ease-of-use win here: because findings arrive pre-verified with proof-of-exploit, teams skip most manual confirmation and developers get results they can trust and act on immediately.

AcuSensor on the Acunetix side helps in a different way — it points to the vulnerable line of code, which speeds remediation for supported languages. Both platforms offer guided workflows, granular scan-policy, scheduling and role management, and detailed documentation. Expect some training investment for advanced configuration on either.

API/Integrations

Modern security programs need to plug into existing toolchains, and both products expose extensive APIs and integrations for automation.

Both provide REST APIs that let you trigger scans, pull results and manage assets programmatically, so DAST can live inside custom scripts and security-orchestration pipelines.

curl -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
     -d '{"target_url": "https://example.com", "scan_profile_id": "default"}' \
     https://api.scanner.com/vulnerabilities/scan/

This is a simplified illustration; actual endpoints and parameters vary by product. Automation is the point — continuous security testing beats point-in-time scans. What Every Engineer Should Know About Continuous Attack Surface Management covers why that matters.

Both integrate with issue trackers — Jira, GitHub, GitLab and ServiceNow — so vulnerabilities become tickets in developers' existing workflow. CI/CD is a core strength for both, with Jenkins, Azure DevOps, TeamCity and GitHub Actions support so scans fire on commits or deployments. In practice the Invicti enterprise product ships the more native, out-of-the-box integration set, while Acunetix's CI/CD hooks are solid but lighter.

Both can export vulnerability data to Web Application Firewalls such as Imperva and F5 for virtual patching, support SSO via SAML and OpenID Connect, and feed SIEM and GRC platforms for logging, alerting and compliance reporting.

Verdict

Because Acunetix and Netsparker (Invicti) are two products from the same company on a shared engine, choosing between them is really about matching product to team size and workflow, not picking a "better scanner."

For smaller and mid-sized teams, Acunetix is usually the pragmatic pick. It is faster to deploy, per-target pricing keeps the entry cost lower, and AcuSensor adds code-level IAST for PHP, Java, .NET and Node.js. If you want accurate DAST with minimal setup, Acunetix gets you scanning sooner.

For larger, compliance-heavy estates, Netsparker (Invicti) tends to win. Proof-Based Scanning cuts false-positive triage, bundled SCA and deeper native CI/CD suit DevSecOps at scale, and on-prem/Docker deployment plus centralized, role-based management fit big environments. If you are running dozens of targets across teams, the enterprise platform is built for that.

Both are premium, quote-based products, so weigh total cost of ownership — including the triage time saved by Proof-Based Scanning or the remediation time saved by AcuSensor — and get a quote for each against your real target count. For quick, one-off checks, Secably's free website vulnerability scanner gives immediate insight without a license.

Where Secably Fits

Secably is not an enterprise DAST platform, and we will not pretend otherwise. It is a lightweight, external web and vulnerability scanner for teams that want fast, no-friction checks and continuous external monitoring without standing up a heavy tool like Acunetix or Invicti.

Where a full DAST engine does deep, authenticated, code-aware testing of applications you already know about, Secably works from the outside in — scanning your public-facing web assets, surfacing common misconfigurations and exposures, and helping you keep an eye on what is reachable from the internet. It is complementary: a quick external pass and ongoing watch, not a replacement for a deep application pen-test pipeline.

Our free tools are built for immediate use. The free website vulnerability scanner gives you a fast read on a site, the free port scanner shows open ports and services, and the subdomain discovery tool helps you find web assets you may have forgotten about. Good reconnaissance, zero cost.

Paid Secably plans add continuous external monitoring and start at $19/month after the free tier. We alert you when your external footprint changes — new subdomains, changed DNS, newly exposed services — so nothing public-facing slips past unnoticed between your deeper DAST scans.

If you eventually need enterprise-grade, authenticated application testing, Acunetix or Netsparker (Invicti) are the right tools for that job. Secably is the lightweight external layer that keeps quick checks and ongoing monitoring cheap and simple.