Mobile App Security Tools 2026
Mobile App Security covers the tools that protect iOS and Android apps once they leave your build pipeline and land on devices you do not control. That shift in trust is the whole problem: a jailbroken phone, an emulator, or a hooked runtime gives an attacker full visibility into your binary, your API calls, and your secrets. These tools combine pre-release testing (MAST plus SAST and DAST on the binary) with in-app defenses like code obfuscation, anti-tampering, jailbreak and root detection, and runtime application self-protection (RASP). CISOs in fintech, healthcare, and any business with a customer-facing app reach for this category when a published app is itself part of the attack surface, not just a client to a secured backend.
We cover 108 Mobile App Security tools, 71 free and 37 commercial.
Accuracy and depth improve over time. Last reviewed Jun 2026. Is something off? Reach out.
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StaDynA is a system supporting security app analysis in the presence of dynamic code update features.
FSquaDRA detects repackaged Android applications by computing Jaccard similarity over file digests within APK packages using pre-computed signing digests for improved performance.
A security policy enforcement framework for Android applications that uses bytecode rewriting and in-place reference monitoring to inject security controls into APK files.
MARA is a Mobile Application Reverse engineering and Analysis Framework with various features for testing mobile applications against OWASP mobile security threats.
StaCoAn is a cross-platform tool for static code analysis on mobile applications, emphasizing the identification of security vulnerabilities.
Automates the process of preparing Android APK files for HTTPS inspection
Android security virtual machine with updated tools and frameworks for reverse engineering and malware analysis.
Runtime mobile exploration toolkit powered by Frida for assessing mobile app security without jailbreak.
Andromeda makes reverse engineering of Android applications faster and easier.
Innovative tool for mobile security researchers to analyze targets with static and dynamic analysis capabilities and sharing functionalities.
Tools for working with Android .dex and Java .class files, including dex-reader/writer, d2j-dex2jar, and smali/baksmali.
ReFlutter is a reverse engineering framework that uses patched Flutter libraries to enable dynamic analysis and traffic monitoring of Flutter mobile applications on Android and iOS platforms.
Redexer is a reengineering tool that parses, analyzes, and modifies Android DEX files for binary manipulation and permission analysis.
XGuardian XARA Security Scanner for OSX with URL scheme, Bundle ID, and keychain hijack checks.
Linux Virtual Machine for Mobile Application Pentesting and Mobile Malware Analysis with various tools and resources.
House: A runtime mobile application analysis toolkit with a Web GUI, powered by Frida, written in Python.
Needle is a discontinued open source modular framework for iOS application security assessments that was compatible with iOS 9 and iOS 10 before being replaced by Objection.
drozer is an open source Android security testing framework that identifies vulnerabilities in mobile apps and devices through Android Runtime and IPC endpoint interaction.
Mobile Audit is a Docker-based SAST and malware analysis tool that performs comprehensive security analysis of Android APK files, including vulnerability detection, certificate verification, and Virus Total integration.
Androwarn performs static analysis of Android applications using Dalvik bytecode examination to detect and report potentially malicious behaviors.
Runtime Mobile Security (RMS) is a powerful web interface powered by FRIDA for manipulating Android and iOS Apps at Runtime.
One stop shop for decompiling Android apps with a focus on regenerating R references.
How to choose Mobile App Security tools
- Confirm true parity across iOS and Android. Many tools are strong on one platform and thin on the other, especially for newer Swift or Kotlin and native code.
- Decide whether you need testing, runtime protection, or both, then check the tool actually does the half you care about rather than badging a light version of it.
- For hardening tools, test whether protection survives your build process: how it handles app thinning, code signing, third-party SDKs, and over-the-air updates without breaking releases.
- Measure the CI/CD fit. Look for SDK or build-step integration, scan speed that keeps pace with your release cadence, and findings that map to real exploitability rather than noise.
- Probe the depth of jailbreak, root, and instrumentation detection. Frida, hooking frameworks, and repackaging evolve constantly, so ask how detection is updated and how the tool responds when tampering is found.
- Weigh runtime cost. Obfuscation and RASP add app size, startup time, and battery overhead, so validate the performance hit on real devices before committing to a consumer app.
Mobile App Security Tools FAQ
Common questions about Mobile App Security tools, selection guides, pricing, and comparisons.
Mobile app security software protects published iOS and Android apps from reverse engineering, tampering, and runtime attacks. It spans two jobs: testing the app before release for code and configuration flaws, and hardening it in production with obfuscation, anti-tampering, jailbreak and root detection, and runtime self-protection. The goal is keeping the app trustworthy on devices and operating systems you do not control.
MDM and mobile threat defense protect the device and the employee using it: enrollment policies, OS posture, and malicious-app detection across a fleet. Mobile app security protects a specific app you publish, regardless of whose device runs it. If you ship a banking or healthcare app to millions of unmanaged consumer phones, MDM cannot help you. App hardening and in-app RASP can.
Often yes. A secured backend assumes the client behaves honestly, but a determined attacker controls the client. They can decompile the app, lift API keys and certificates, bypass client-side checks, and replay or abuse your endpoints at scale. Obfuscation and anti-tampering raise the cost of that reverse engineering, and jailbreak detection plus RASP catch manipulation the backend alone never sees.
Testing tools (MAST, binary SAST and DAST) find vulnerabilities before you ship and fit naturally into CI/CD. Protection tools (obfuscation, anti-tampering, RASP) defend the app after release. Most mature programs need both, but start with whichever gap is bigger: testing if you lack release-time assurance, hardening if you have a high-value app already in attackers' hands.
