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Cybersecurity · head to head

IVPN vs OWASP ZAP

I

IVPN

Cybersecurity

Privacy-focused VPN with anonymous account numbers instead of email signup

From
$6/month
Rated
-
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
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only OWASP ZAP has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: IVPN has no free tier, unlike several consumer VPN competitors with limited free plans.; 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: IVPN covers Anonymous account numbers, OWASP ZAP covers Intercepting proxy.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 30 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which IVPN and OWASP ZAP actually diverge.

Attributes where IVPN and OWASP ZAP differ
AttributeIVPNOWASP ZAP
Starting price$6/monthFree
Pricing modelsubscriptionfree
Free tierNoYes
Platformswindows, mac, linux, ios, androidDesktop, Cli, Api
FoundedUnknown2001

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

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 IVPN

  • Anonymous account numbers
  • Multi-hop connections
  • Independent audits
  • WireGuard and OpenVPN support
  • AntiTracker

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.

IVPN

  • Signing up for a VPN without providing an email addressnot OWASP ZAP
  • Verifying a VPN's no-logs claims via independent auditsnot OWASP ZAP
  • Layering multi-hop routing for higher-anonymity browsingnot OWASP ZAP
  • Blocking trackers and ads via built-in AntiTrackernot 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 IVPN
  • Manual penetration testing that needs an intercepting proxy, request replay and fuzzing without a paid licence per testernot IVPN
  • Teaching developers what an attack against their own endpoint looks like, using a tool they can install themselvesnot IVPN
  • Pre-release regression scanning of an internal application that would never justify a commercial DAST subscriptionnot IVPN

Where each one falls short

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

IVPN

  • Has no free tier, unlike several consumer VPN competitors with limited free plans.
  • Standard plan's two-connection limit is lower than many rivals offering five or more devices.
  • Smaller server network than large mainstream VPN providers, which can limit streaming unblocking.
  • Pricing is higher than budget VPN competitors for comparable simultaneous-connection counts.

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

IVPN

$6/month
  • Standard$6/month
    • 2 simultaneous connections
    • $60/year billed annually
    • WireGuard and OpenVPN support
  • Pro$10/month
    • 7 simultaneous connections
    • Multi-hop connections
    • $100/year billed annually

OWASP ZAP

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

Which should you pick?

Choose IVPN if

  • You need anonymous account numbers.
  • You work on windows, mac, linux, ios, android.
  • You also want multi-hop connections.
IVPN 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 IVPN or OWASP ZAP better?
Neither clearly leads. IVPN starts at $6/month and OWASP ZAP at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, IVPN or OWASP ZAP?
OWASP ZAP has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at $6/month for IVPN and Free for OWASP ZAP.
Does IVPN or OWASP ZAP run on more platforms?
IVPN runs on windows, mac, linux, 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. IVPN starts at $6/month.
What is IVPN best used for?
IVPN is most often used for signing up for a vpn without providing an email address, verifying a vpn's no-logs claims via independent audits, layering multi-hop routing for higher-anonymity browsing, blocking trackers and ads via built-in antitracker. Of those, signing up for a vpn without providing an email address and verifying a vpn's no-logs claims via independent audits are not what OWASP ZAP is typically brought in for.
What can IVPN do that OWASP ZAP cannot?
IVPN covers Anonymous account numbers, Multi-hop connections, Independent audits, WireGuard and OpenVPN support. OWASP ZAP covers Intercepting proxy, Passive scanner, Active scanner, AJAX spider.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

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.

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.

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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