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Government · head to head

Bang the Table vs OWASP ZAP

Bang the Table logo

Bang the Table

Government

Community Engagement Platform

From
$600/month
Free plan
No
Full reviewWebsite
OWASP ZAP logo

OWASP ZAP

Cybersecurity

Free, open-source web application scanner and intercepting proxy, now governed by the Software Security Project.

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only OWASP ZAP has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Bang the Table the Internet Archive's capture of Bang the Table's homepage on 29 December 2020 confirmed its EngagementHQ platform is sold only via demo request, with EngagementIQ support offered as separate 'annual success plan options'; no price figure is published for either.; OWASP ZAP authenticated scanning of modern single-page applications is the hard part and ZAP makes you build it by hand: session handling, token refresh and login scripts are configured per application, and a misconfigured session means the scanner logs itself out and reports a clean result for pages it never reached.
  • They diverge on capability: Bang the Table covers Online Surveys, OWASP ZAP covers Intercepting proxy.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 30 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Bang the Table and OWASP ZAP actually diverge.

Attributes where Bang the Table and OWASP ZAP differ
AttributeBang the TableOWASP ZAP
Starting price$600/monthFree
Pricing modelsubscriptionfree
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWeb, Ios, AndroidDesktop, Cli, Api
CategoryGovernmentCybersecurity
Founded20072001

Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Bang the Table

  • Online Surveys
  • Discussion Forums
  • Interactive Mapping
  • Story Telling
  • Participation Analytics
  • ArcGIS
  • Google Maps
  • Social Media

Only in OWASP ZAP

  • Intercepting proxy
  • Passive scanner
  • Active scanner
  • AJAX spider
  • Automation Framework
  • Headless daemon and REST API
  • Docker images
  • Add-on marketplace

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Bang the Table

  • Citizen Servicesnot OWASP ZAP
  • Records Managementnot OWASP ZAP
  • Public Safetynot OWASP ZAP
  • Civic Engagementnot OWASP ZAP

OWASP ZAP

  • Adding a baseline security scan to every application's pipeline where per-target commercial licensing would limit coverage to a handfulnot Bang the Table
  • Manual penetration testing that needs an intercepting proxy, request replay and fuzzing without a paid licence per testernot Bang the Table
  • Teaching developers what an attack against their own endpoint looks like, using a tool they can install themselvesnot Bang the Table
  • Pre-release regression scanning of an internal application that would never justify a commercial DAST subscriptionnot Bang the Table

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Bang the Table

  • The Internet Archive's capture of Bang the Table's homepage on 29 December 2020 confirmed its EngagementHQ platform is sold only via demo request, with EngagementIQ support offered as separate 'annual success plan options'; no price figure is published for either.

OWASP ZAP

  • Authenticated scanning of modern single-page applications is the hard part and ZAP makes you build it by hand: session handling, token refresh and login scripts are configured per application, and a misconfigured session means the scanner logs itself out and reports a clean result for pages it never reached.
  • There is no support contract in the product, so when a scan breaks the day before a release the escalation path is a GitHub issue and a community chat, which is not an answer that satisfies a delivery manager or an auditor who wants a named responsible party.
  • Active scanning sends genuine attack traffic, so it can create records, trigger emails, exhaust rate limits or destabilise a fragile environment, and pointing it at production without prior agreement produces an incident rather than a test result.
  • Output needs triage: passive rules generate large volumes of low-severity informational findings about headers and cookie flags that bury the few results that matter, and a team without someone tuning the rule set stops reading the report within a few sprints.
  • As a dynamic scanner it can only test what it can reach, so authorisation flaws between accounts, business logic abuse and anything behind an undiscovered endpoint go unreported, and a passing ZAP scan is evidence of nothing more than the absence of the classes of bug it looks for.

Pricing, plan by plan

Bang the Table

$600/month
  • EngagementHQ$600/month
    • Surveys
    • Forums
    • Mapping Tools

OWASP ZAP

Free
  • Free & Open SourceFree
    • Full functionality
    • Active & passive scanning
    • Spider

Which should you pick?

Choose Bang the Table if

  • You need online surveys.
  • You work on Web, Ios, Android.
  • You also want discussion forums.
Bang the Table review

Choose OWASP ZAP if

  • You need intercepting proxy.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Desktop, Cli, Api.
  • You also want passive scanner.
OWASP ZAP review

Questions people ask

Is Bang the Table or OWASP ZAP better?
Neither clearly leads. Bang the Table starts at $600/month and OWASP ZAP at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Bang the Table or OWASP ZAP?
OWASP ZAP has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at $600/month for Bang the Table and Free for OWASP ZAP.
Does Bang the Table or OWASP ZAP run on more platforms?
Bang the Table runs on Web, Ios, Android. OWASP ZAP runs on Desktop, Cli, Api.
Can I use OWASP ZAP for free?
Yes. OWASP ZAP has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Bang the Table starts at $600/month.
What is Bang the Table best used for?
Bang the Table is most often used for citizen services, records management, public safety, civic engagement. Of those, citizen services and records management are not what OWASP ZAP is typically brought in for.
What can Bang the Table do that OWASP ZAP cannot?
Bang the Table covers Online Surveys, Discussion Forums, Interactive Mapping, Story Telling. OWASP ZAP covers Intercepting proxy, Passive scanner, Active scanner, AJAX spider.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Bang the Table: What solutions does Granicus provide?

Granicus offers Service Cloud for frictionless service delivery, Engagement Cloud for growing and activating audiences, Operations Cloud for automating workflows and reducing costs, and Government Experience Agent for 24/7 self-service with digital agents.

Source
OWASP ZAP: Is it still called OWASP ZAP?

The project left OWASP in August 2024 and is now governed by the Software Security Project, with core development sponsored by Checkmarx. The tool is now just ZAP, though most existing documentation, courses and search results still use the OWASP name.

Bang the Table: Who does Granicus serve?

Granicus serves local government, state government, education, elected officials, federal government, and special districts. It helps organizations deliver better citizen experiences and improve government efficiency.

Source
OWASP ZAP: Is it free for commercial use?

Yes. It is Apache 2.0 licensed, with no per-application, per-scan or per-user cost, and it can be used and modified commercially without a licence agreement.

Bang the Table: Does Granicus offer AI solutions?

Yes, Granicus AI Hub provides secure, ethical AI solutions built exclusively for the public sector to transform services without compromising public trust.

Source
OWASP ZAP: Can it replace a penetration test?

No. It automates checks for known vulnerability classes against endpoints it can reach. It does not reason about business logic, chain findings into an attack, or test authorisation between accounts, which is most of what a tester actually does.

OWASP ZAP: Does it run in CI?

Yes, through the official Docker images and the Automation Framework, which defines scan jobs in YAML so configuration lives in the repository. A baseline passive scan is the usual starting point because it is fast and non-intrusive.

OWASP ZAP: How does it compare to Burp Suite?

Burp Suite Professional is the more polished manual testing tool and has a stronger scanner and extension ecosystem, but it is licensed per tester and Burp Suite Enterprise per target. ZAP is the better fit where cost per target is the binding constraint; many teams use both.

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