Charles vs OWASP Zed Attack Proxy (ZAP)

Charles

Description: Charles is an HTTP proxy / HTTP monitor / Reverse Proxy that enables a developer to view all of the HTTP and SSL / HTTPS traffic between their machine and the Internet. This includes requests, responses and the HTTP headers (which contain the cookies and caching information).

Type: software

OWASP Zed Attack Proxy (ZAP)

Description: ZAP is an open-source web application security scanner used to find vulnerabilities in web apps. It offers automated and manual tools to scan APIs, access control weaknesses, injection flaws, XSS, and other issues.

Type: software

Pricing: Open Source

Charles Features

• HTTP proxy
• HTTP monitor
• Reverse proxy
• View HTTP/HTTPS traffic
• View requests
• View responses
• View HTTP headers
• View cookies
• View caching information

OWASP Zed Attack Proxy (ZAP) Features

• Spidering and crawling of web applications
• Passive scanning for analysis of requests and responses
• Active scanning for vulnerability detection
• AJAX spidering for crawling of modern web apps
• Variety of attack tools for penetration testing
• Extensible via add-ons for advanced functions
• Built-in proxy for traffic inspection and modification
• Automated and manual testing options
• Command line and GUI interfaces
• Authentication tools for session management
• Integrations with CI/CD pipelines
• APIs for integration with other tools
• Exporting of reports in various formats

Charles

• Not listed

OWASP Zed Attack Proxy (ZAP)

• Open Source