A ZAP alternative,
minus the JVM.
OWASP ZAP is the reference free scanner: open source, scriptable, and able to do almost anything through its API and add-ons. If what you want is a desktop suite with a built-in scanner and no Java runtime, Hugin is the same job in a single native binary. This page is honest about where ZAP is ahead.
what ships · what's paywalled · what's actually better
ZAP is fully open source and far more scriptable than Hugin — a Python or JavaScript add-on can extend the scanner itself, and its add-on catalogue is deep. If licence freedom or CI automation is a hard requirement, ZAP is the correct choice and Hugin is not.
Hugin vs
OWASP ZAP
The rows that decide it, not all forty.
| Hugin | OWASP ZAP | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free · Pro €10/mo | Free · open source |
| Core is open source | ✗ | ✓ |
| Active scanner | ✓ | ✓ |
| Passive scanner | ✓ | ✓ |
| Native binary, no JVM | ✓ | ✗ |
| Scriptable / pluggable checks | ~ Synaps WASM | ✓ |
| Race condition engine | ✓ | ✗ |
| HTTP/3 (QUIC) proxy | ✓ | ✗ |
| AI agent over MCP | ✓ | ~ |
Asked
anyway.
Is there an alternative to OWASP ZAP?
Yes. ZAP's own strengths are that it is open source and scriptable; if you want a native desktop suite with a built-in scanner and no JVM, Hugin is the alternative, and Burp Suite Professional is the paid one. ZAP, Hugin and Burp all ship an active and passive scanner.
Is OWASP ZAP as good as Burp Suite?
For automated scanning and CI, ZAP is excellent and free. For manual, browser-driven testing Burp's extension ecosystem and DOM analysis are deeper. ZAP wins on automation and licence freedom; that is not a close call.
Is Hugin open source like ZAP?
No. Hugin's core is proprietary — free to use, but its source is not published; only the WASM module SDK is open. ZAP is fully open source and Hugin is not, and this comparison says so rather than implying otherwise.
The tool,
and the how-to.
Run it
yourself.
No sign-up, no card. Download and run.
The other
head-to-heads.
Free Burp Suite Alternative — Hugin vs Burp
Burp Suite Professional is the industry standard and it costs $499 a year. Hugin is the same shape of tool — intercepting proxy, active and passive scanner, intruder, repeater, sequencer — that runs natively, offline, and free for personal and educational use.
Burp vs ZAP — and Where Hugin Fits
The usual question is whether to pay $499 for Burp Suite Professional or use ZAP for free. Hugin is the free option that is neither a JVM desktop app nor a scriptable library — one native binary, proxy, scanner, intruder, repeater and an AI agent.
Caido vs Burp — and the Free Alternative
Caido is the modern, Rust-based proxy that has pulled a lot of Burp users. Burp is still the incumbent. Hugin is the third point: like Caido it is native, unlike Caido it ships an active scanner in the box.
Free Burp Collaborator Alternative — Self-Hosted OOB
Burp Collaborator is the out-of-band server that catches the bugs you cannot see in a response: blind SSRF, blind RCE, blind XXE. It is a Professional-only feature. Hugin's Oastify does the same job over 8 protocols, from your own infrastructure, at a tenth of the price.
Burp Intruder Alternative — Full Speed, Free
Burp Intruder is throttled to a demo in the free Community Edition; the real thing sits behind the $499/year Professional licence. Hugin's intruder is unthrottled and free — sniper, pitchfork, cluster bomb and battering ram, with payload generators and processors.
Free Burp Scanner Alternative — 64 Active Checks
Burp's web vulnerability scanner is a Professional-only feature and there is no free edition of it. Hugin's scanner ships in the free Community tier: 64 active checks and 48 passive checks, mapped to the OWASP and API Top 10, with no rate limit.
Burp Repeater Alternative — Free, Native
Burp Repeater is free in Community Edition and Hugin's is free too — this page is about the difference a native repeater makes, not about price. Hand-edit any request, replay it, diff the responses, and move on.
Burp Decoder, Comparer & Sequencer Alternatives
Burp's Decoder, Comparer and Sequencer ship free in Community Edition, so this is a fair fight rather than a paywall story. Hugin has all three, and adds a composable transform chain and a sequencer that runs the FIPS 140-2 randomness tests.
Free Web Application Vulnerability Scanner
The web application vulnerability scanner is the most-paywalled tool in security testing. Burp's is Professional-only at $499 a year. ZAP's is free and open source. Hugin's is in the free Community tier with no rate limit. Three honest options, one table.
mitmproxy vs Burp Suite — and Where Hugin Fits
mitmproxy and Burp are often framed as rivals, but they are built for different work. mitmproxy is a scriptable, terminal-first proxy that automation is written against. Burp is a GUI suite a person drives by hand. Hugin sits closer to Burp's shape and adds the parts Burp paywalls.
Burp Community Edition — What's Missing
Burp Suite Community Edition is genuinely free and genuinely capable — proxy, Repeater, Decoder, Sequencer and Comparer. What it does not have is a scanner, an unthrottled Intruder, out-of-band testing or project saving. This page shows exactly which parts are free and which are not.
Caido Alternative — a Free Proxy with a Scanner
Caido pulled a lot of testers off Burp with a lighter, Rust-based proxy and a clean plugin system. Its active scanner is a community plugin, not a shipped feature. Hugin is the free alternative that ships the scanner built in — with proxy, repeater, intruder and a race engine in one binary.
The full feature matrix
Every capability, every tier, side by side.