AquilaX vs cfn-nag: Side-by-Side Comparison (2026)
Features, pricing, ratings, and pros & cons — compared head-to-head.
AquilaX is a commercial static application security testing tool by AquilaX. cfn-nag is a free static application security testing tool. Compare features, ratings, integrations, and community reviews side by side to find the best static application security testing fit for your security stack.
CST VerdictBased on our analysis of NIST CSF 2.0 coverage, company size fit, deployment model, here is our conclusion:
AppSec teams in mid-market and enterprise organizations need AquilaX if your developers are scattered across multiple CI/CD pipelines and you're tired of bolting together five different scanners. The platform consolidates SAST, SCA, and container scanning in one gate, which cuts both tool sprawl and the false positive fatigue that kills adoption; hybrid deployment means you aren't forced into cloud-only architecture. Skip this if your organization has already standardized on a single dominant scanner with deep integrations into your specific pipeline, or if you need advanced DAST capabilities, since AquilaX's strength is earlier in the development cycle.
Platform engineers and DevOps teams building on AWS will find cfn-nag indispensable for catching CloudFormation misconfigurations before they hit production, particularly because it runs entirely in your CI/CD pipeline with zero cloud dependencies. The tool has 1,288 GitHub stars and catches real security gaps,IAM overpermissions, unencrypted storage, exposed secrets,that CSPM tools often flag only after deployment. Skip this if your infrastructure spans multiple cloud providers or you need policy-as-code enforcement with drift remediation; cfn-nag is template scanning only, not a compliance orchestration platform.
