Cloud · head to head
OpenEBS vs OWASP ZAP
OWASP ZAP
Cybersecurity
Free, open-source web application scanner and intercepting proxy, now governed by the Software Security Project.
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Each has a real cost: OpenEBS there is no vendor on the other end of an incident unless you separately contract DataCore, so an outage at three in the morning is resolved by your own team and a public Slack channel.; 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: OpenEBS covers Replicated engine, OWASP ZAP covers Intercepting proxy.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which OpenEBS and OWASP ZAP actually diverge.
Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), 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 OpenEBS
- Replicated engine
- Local PV engines
- Kubernetes-native management
- Snapshots and clones
- No licence fee
- Hardware independence
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.
OpenEBS
- Running Cassandra or Kafka on Kubernetes where the application already replicates and node-local volumes are sufficientnot OWASP ZAP
- A platform team that needs persistent volumes on bare metal Kubernetes without a per node subscriptionnot OWASP ZAP
- An edge or lab deployment where a commercial storage licence cannot be justifiednot OWASP ZAP
- Replacing hostpath volumes with something that has snapshots and a Container Storage Interface drivernot 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 OpenEBS
- Manual penetration testing that needs an intercepting proxy, request replay and fuzzing without a paid licence per testernot OpenEBS
- Teaching developers what an attack against their own endpoint looks like, using a tool they can install themselvesnot OpenEBS
- Pre-release regression scanning of an internal application that would never justify a commercial DAST subscriptionnot OpenEBS
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
OpenEBS
- There is no vendor on the other end of an incident unless you separately contract DataCore, so an outage at three in the morning is resolved by your own team and a public Slack channel.
- The project has several storage engines with different maturity and different operational characteristics, and choosing the wrong one for your workload produces poor results that look like a product failure.
- Documentation and upgrade guidance assume real Kubernetes storage knowledge, so teams without that expertise underestimate the operational load they are taking on.
- Project governance shifted after DataCore acquired MayaData in 2021, which means the direction of a supposedly neutral project is influenced by one commercial sponsor.
- Disaster recovery, cross-cluster replication and policy-driven data services are thinner than in the commercial alternatives, so organisations with those requirements end up building them or buying a product anyway.
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
OpenEBS
Free- OpenEBSFree
- Apache 2.0 licensed
- All storage engines included
- No node or capacity limits
OWASP ZAP
Free- Free & Open SourceFree
- Full functionality
- Active & passive scanning
- Spider
Which should you pick?
Choose OpenEBS if
- You need replicated engine.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Linux.
- You also want local pv engines.
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.
Questions people ask
- Is OpenEBS or OWASP ZAP better?
- Neither clearly leads. OpenEBS starts at Free and OWASP ZAP at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, OpenEBS or OWASP ZAP?
- OpenEBS starts at Free and OWASP ZAP at Free.
- Does OpenEBS or OWASP ZAP run on more platforms?
- OpenEBS runs on Linux. OWASP ZAP runs on Desktop, Cli, Api.
- Can I use OpenEBS for free?
- Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
- What is OpenEBS best used for?
- OpenEBS is most often used for running cassandra or kafka on kubernetes where the application already replicates and node-local volumes are sufficient, a platform team that needs persistent volumes on bare metal kubernetes without a per node subscription, an edge or lab deployment where a commercial storage licence cannot be justified, replacing hostpath volumes with something that has snapshots and a container storage interface driver. Of those, running cassandra or kafka on kubernetes where the application already replicates and node-local volumes are sufficient and a platform team that needs persistent volumes on bare metal kubernetes without a per node subscription are not what OWASP ZAP is typically brought in for.
- What can OpenEBS do that OWASP ZAP cannot?
- OpenEBS covers Replicated engine, Local PV engines, Kubernetes-native management, Snapshots and clones. OWASP ZAP covers Intercepting proxy, Passive scanner, Active scanner, AJAX spider.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
OpenEBS: Who supports it in production?
The project is community supported. Commercial support is available from DataCore, which acquired the original sponsor MayaData in 2021. Establish that relationship before production, not during an incident.
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.
OpenEBS: Which engine should we use?
If your application replicates its own data, use a Local engine and avoid replicating twice. If it does not, such as with PostgreSQL, use the Replicated engine.
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.
OpenEBS: Does it cost anything?
No licence fee. The cost is operational, and a support contract if you want someone accountable.
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.
Related pages
Other head to heads
- OpenEBS vs Portworx
- OpenEBS vs Rancher
- OpenEBS vs Longhorn
- OpenEBS vs DigitalOcean
- OpenEBS vs Podman
- OpenEBS vs Qovery
- OpenEBS vs Caddy
- OpenEBS vs Cerebrium
- OpenEBS vs DeepInfra
- OpenEBS vs Go
- OpenEBS vs Proxmox VE
- OpenEBS vs K3s
- OpenEBS vs Rook
- OpenEBS vs containerd
- OpenEBS vs minikube
- OpenEBS vs Cilium
- OpenEBS vs Flux
- OpenEBS vs Linkerd
- OpenEBS vs 1Password
- OpenEBS vs Bitdefender Total Security
- OpenEBS vs Norton 360
- OpenEBS vs LastPass
- OpenEBS vs Bitwarden
- OpenEBS vs Burp Suite
- OpenEBS vs Metasploit
- OpenEBS vs Wireshark
- OpenEBS vs authentik
- OpenEBS vs Authelia
- OpenEBS vs Infisical
- OpenEBS vs Trivy
- OpenEBS vs Feedzai
- OpenEBS vs Frontegg
- OpenEBS vs HashiCorp Boundary
- OpenEBS vs JumpCloud
- OpenEBS vs McAfee Total Protection
- OWASP ZAP vs Portworx
- OWASP ZAP vs Rancher
- OWASP ZAP vs Longhorn
- OWASP ZAP vs DigitalOcean
- OWASP ZAP vs Podman
- OWASP ZAP vs Qovery
- OWASP ZAP vs Caddy
- OWASP ZAP vs Cerebrium
- OWASP ZAP vs DeepInfra
- OWASP ZAP vs Go
- OWASP ZAP vs Proxmox VE
- OWASP ZAP vs K3s
- OWASP ZAP vs Rook
- OWASP ZAP vs containerd
- OWASP ZAP vs minikube
- OWASP ZAP vs Cilium
- OWASP ZAP vs Flux
- OWASP ZAP vs Linkerd
- OWASP ZAP vs 1Password
- OWASP ZAP vs Bitdefender Total Security
- OWASP ZAP vs Norton 360
- OWASP ZAP vs LastPass
- OWASP ZAP vs Bitwarden
- OWASP ZAP vs Burp Suite
- OWASP ZAP vs Metasploit
- OWASP ZAP vs Wireshark
- OWASP ZAP vs authentik
- OWASP ZAP vs Authelia
- OWASP ZAP vs Infisical
- OWASP ZAP vs Trivy
- OWASP ZAP vs Feedzai
- OWASP ZAP vs Frontegg
- OWASP ZAP vs HashiCorp Boundary
- OWASP ZAP vs JumpCloud
- OWASP ZAP vs McAfee Total Protection