ComparisonAudit, scanner, or WAF?
Audit, scanner, or WAF?
The right tool at the right time.
Three ways to secure a web application. None of them covers everything. Each plays a specific role depending on your maturity, budget, and goals.
Detailed comparison
| Criterion | External review | Automated scanner | WAF |
|---|---|---|---|
| Method | Human analysis of the public attack surface | Automated scanning for known patterns (OWASP, CVE) | Real-time filtering of HTTP requests |
| Business logic flaws | Yes, this is the main strength | No, limited to known signatures | No, does not understand application logic |
| False positives | Very low (manual validation) | High (30-60% depending on the tool) | N/A (blocks or allows traffic) |
| Setup time | No prerequisites on your side | Initial configuration and tuning | Network integration and rule calibration |
| Typical SMB cost | EUR 1,900 to 4,200 per audit | EUR 500 to 3,000 per year (SaaS) | EUR 1,000 to 5,000 per year |
| Coverage | Public surface, APIs, auth, storage, bundles | Known technical vulnerabilities (XSS, SQLi, headers) | Active attacks (injection, L7 DDoS, bots) |
| When to use it | First audit, compliance, initial diagnosis | Continuous monitoring, regression, CI/CD | Production defense, perimeter protection |
| What it does not do | No real-time protection | No grasp of business context | No detection of existing flaws |
| Actionable report | Yes, with evidence and a remediation plan | List of vulnerabilities with CVSS scores | Blocking logs, no root-cause analysis |
| GDPR compliance value | Direct due-diligence evidence | Partial (limited technical coverage) | No evidentiary value for a regulatory audit |
Pick the external review if...
- Your application has never been audited by a human
- You need concrete evidence for a regulatory audit or client questionnaire
- Your stack runs on Supabase, Firebase, Laravel, or WordPress with custom APIs
- You suspect business-logic flaws no scanner will catch
- You want a fast diagnosis without disrupting production
Pick the scanner if...
- You have already fixed major flaws and want continuous monitoring
- You are wiring security into your CI/CD pipeline
- You want to catch technical regressions after each deploy
- Your engineering team can read and triage scanner output
- You need to cover a large scope quickly at low cost
Pick the WAF if...
- Your application is in production and exposed to malicious traffic
- You are under automated attacks (bots, credential stuffing, scraping)
- You need an immediate defense layer while you fix the underlying flaws
- Your infrastructure supports it (reverse proxy, compatible CDN)
- You have already identified your flaws and want cover while patches ship