API security tools do different jobs: some map APIs and assess their posture, some test APIs before release, and others detect or prevent malicious requests at runtime. The nine options below are examples to evaluate—not an objectively ranked list. Five have feature descriptions supported here by their vendors’ product pages; the other four are listed in OWASP’s community directory, but their current capabilities are not established here.
What API security software should cover
APIs share some security controls and software vulnerabilities with traditional web applications, but they have enough distinct risks to warrant API-focused tools, according to the OWASP API Security Tools directory. OWASP groups API tools into three broad categories:
- Posture and inventory: Find APIs, document their methods and data, and identify risks or gaps in what the organization knows it operates.
- Testing: Assess APIs dynamically, often using API descriptions or collections, before or during development.
- Runtime security: Detect or prevent malicious requests while APIs are in use.
These categories are not interchangeable. A discovery platform does not necessarily test an API, and a tool that reports suspicious activity does not necessarily block it. Confirm which lifecycle stages a product covers and what it can enforce in your architecture.
Which API security tools are worth evaluating?
This comparison separates vendor-described capabilities from directory listings. Product descriptions below are claims made by the vendors, not independent proof of effectiveness or comparative performance. OWASP’s directory is a community-maintained resource, not a product ranking.
#1 Best Overall
| Tool | What the available source establishes |
|---|---|
| Akamai API Security | Akamai describes API discovery across traffic, code, specifications, gateways, cloud, and external exposure; preproduction testing; runtime behavior analysis; and workflows for remediation and response. Its page distinguishes API security insights from inline edge enforcement provided by App & API Protector. |
| 42Crunch API Security Platform | 42Crunch describes governance, API contract and OpenAPI-centered workflows, automated testing, and runtime protection. OWASP also lists 42Crunch in its directory. |
| Cequence API Security | Cequence describes API discovery and inventory, risk identification, testing with Postman collections or API specifications, and attack protection. |
| Wallarm API Security Platform | Wallarm describes discovery, protection, response, and testing, with SaaS, public-cloud, private-cloud, hybrid, and on-premises deployment options. OWASP separately lists Wallarm’s open-source API Firewall. |
| Salt Security Agentic Security Platform | Salt describes API and agentic security and integrations with operational tools such as SIEM systems, Jira, and firewalls. These are vendor-described capabilities. |
| Akto | OWASP’s directory names Akto; the sources available here do not establish its current product features. |
| Acunetix | OWASP’s directory names Acunetix; the sources available here do not establish its current product features. |
| APIsec | OWASP’s directory names APIsec; the sources available here do not establish its current product features. |
| Imperva API Security | OWASP’s directory names Imperva API Security; the sources available here do not establish its current product features. |
The final four entries are candidates to investigate, not feature-verified recommendations. Check each vendor’s current product documentation, availability, and deployment requirements before comparing it with a shortlist.
How to compare API security tools
Start with the security gaps and deployment environment you need to address. Product labels alone—such as “API security platform”—do not tell you whether a tool discovers APIs, tests them, observes live traffic, or blocks attacks.
Rank #2
- Primary job: Determine whether you need inventory and posture management, dynamic testing, runtime detection or prevention, or coverage across multiple stages.
- Discovery inputs: Check whether the tool can identify APIs from the sources you actually have, such as traffic, code, API descriptions, gateways, or cloud resources. Akamai, for example, describes discovery across all of those types of inputs.
- Testing workflow: Ask whether tests use API descriptions or collections, and whether they fit your development and preproduction process. The Cequence page describes testing with Postman collections or API specifications; 42Crunch describes OpenAPI-centered workflows and automated testing.
- Runtime action: Separate reporting from detection and blocking. Ask which traffic and components a product can affect, whether enforcement is inline, and how findings reach remediation or response workflows.
- Architecture and deployment: Verify compatibility with your gateways, proxies, load balancers, cloud environments, and on-premises systems. Wallarm explicitly lists SaaS, public-cloud, private-cloud, hybrid, and on-premises options; confirm equivalent details directly for every other finalist.
- Evidence: Treat vendor pages as descriptions of advertised features, not independent evaluations. Seek evidence appropriate to your environment and validate that the product addresses your relevant risks.
Use OWASP’s API risks as a coverage checklist
The OWASP API Security Top 10 – 2023 provides a useful checklist for asking what your controls cover. Its ten categories are:
- Broken Object Level Authorization
- Broken Authentication
- Broken Object Property Level Authorization
- Unrestricted Resource Consumption
- Broken Function Level Authorization
- Unrestricted Access to Sensitive Business Flows
- Server Side Request Forgery
- Security Misconfiguration
- Improper Inventory Management
- Unsafe Consumption of APIs
Use the categories to frame questions about authorization, authentication, resource use, sensitive workflows, configuration, inventory, and third-party API consumption—not as a claim about how frequently each problem occurs. OWASP’s 2023 release notes say the edition was its second, published four years after the first. OWASP also says its public call for data received no submissions; specialists and community feedback informed the list. It is therefore not a statistically derived prevalence ranking.
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Quick Recap
Rank #4
A practical way to choose a shortlist
- Map the gap. Decide whether the immediate need is to discover unknown APIs, test known APIs, detect live attacks, block malicious traffic, or coordinate several of those functions.
- Match the tool to your API estate. Identify where APIs are defined and exposed—such as code, specifications, gateways, cloud services, or live traffic—and check which inputs each finalist supports.
- Trace a finding to an action. Establish whether a product reports a risk, helps a team remediate it, or can enforce a block. Confirm the exact traffic path and components involved.
- Check risk coverage. Use the OWASP categories above to ask which risks the product can help identify or address, and where additional controls or testing remain necessary.
- Validate the fit. Confirm deployment, integrations, and operational requirements with the vendor, then assess evidence in the context of your own architecture rather than relying on broad performance claims.
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