PowerUpSQL vs Burp Suite Professional: 2026 Comparison
PowerUpSQL is a free penetration testing tool. Burp Suite Professional is a commercial penetration testing tool by PortSwigger Ltd.. Compare features, ratings, integrations, and community reviews side by side to find the best penetration 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:
Red teamers and penetration testers who need to move laterally through Active Directory via SQL Server will find PowerUpSQL invaluable; it automates the discovery and exploitation of SQL Server misconfigurations that most manual testing misses. The tool is free and purpose-built for this specific attack chain, which means no licensing friction when you need it across multiple engagements. Skip this if you're looking for a general-purpose post-exploitation framework or something that handles non-SQL attack paths; PowerUpSQL is narrow and intentional about what it does.
Security teams responsible for web application penetration testing will get the most from Burp Suite Professional because its manual testing workflow is genuinely faster than competitors when you need to find logic flaws and authentication bypasses that automated scanners miss. The platform covers ID.RA and PR.PS functions across both on-premises and cloud deployments, and PortSwigger's 299-person team maintains the strongest passive scanning library in the category. Skip this if your team lacks dedicated web security engineers or if you need a tool that also handles API fuzzing and mobile testing equally well; Burp's mobile support lags, and the learning curve punishes casual users.
