Aperi'Solve vs HxD: Side-by-Side Comparison (2026)
Features, pricing, ratings, and pros & cons — compared head-to-head.
Aperi'Solve is a free digital forensics and incident response tool. HxD is a free digital forensics and incident response tool. Compare features, ratings, integrations, and community reviews side by side to find the best digital forensics and incident response fit for your security stack.
CST VerdictBased on our analysis of available product data, here is our conclusion:
Incident responders handling suspected data exfiltration or insider threats will find Aperi'Solve valuable for one narrow reason: it automates steganography detection in image files, a forensic skill most teams lack in-house and rarely need until they do. The tool processes batches of images to surface hidden payloads in seconds where manual analysis would take hours. This is not a fit for organizations looking for a general-purpose DFIR platform or those whose threat model doesn't include image-based covert channels; it's a specialized bolt-on for teams that have already identified images as forensic artifacts worth analyzing.
Forensic analysts and incident responders doing memory dumps or filesystem reconstruction need HxD because it's free, runs on any Windows system without dependencies, and handles raw disk sectors as easily as file hex editing. The tool has been in active development since 2003 and remains the default choice for IR teams that need to carve deleted files or inspect boot sectors without licensing overhead. Skip it if your team requires automated batch processing or integration with commercial DFIR platforms; HxD is a manual analyst's tool, not an orchestration layer.
