Aikido Zen vs Paros: 2026 Comparison
Aikido Zen is a commercial dynamic application security testing tool by Aikido Security. Paros is a free dynamic application security testing tool. Compare features, ratings, integrations, and community reviews side by side to find the best dynamic application security testing fit for your security stack.
CST VerdictBased on our analysis of NIST CSF 2.0 coverage, core features, integrations, company size fit, here is our conclusion:
Development teams and pentesters evaluating web application security on a zero budget should pilot Paros; its Java-based proxy architecture handles manual and semi-automated vulnerability discovery without licensing friction, making it ideal for teams building testing workflows before committing to commercial DAST. The tool has been actively maintained for nearly two decades and integrates cleanly with CI/CD pipelines for teams willing to script around its GUI. Skip Paros if you need automated scanning at scale, machine-learning-driven payload generation, or support for modern API authentication schemes; it's a manual-heavy framework that demands operator expertise to extract full value.
Aikido Zen
Runtime application security library blocking zero-days & OWASP Top 10 attacks
Paros
A Java based HTTP/HTTPS proxy for assessing web application vulnerability with various useful features.
Side-by-Side Comparison
NIST CSF 2.0 Mapping
Access NIST CSF 2.0 data from thousands of security products via MCP to assess your stack coverage.
Access via MCP- Real-time blocking of SQL and NoSQL injection attacks
- Command injection prevention
- Path traversal attack protection
- User-aware rate limiting
- Known threat actor blocking via CrowdSec integration
- Bot traffic filtering
- Country-based traffic blocking
- Tor network traffic blocking
- No features listed
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