Detectify is a well-regarded surface and application scanner, and most teams looking for an alternative aren't unhappy with its accuracy - they're unhappy with the price structure (Application Scanning and Surface Monitoring billed as separate modules) or missing a specific capability like dark web credential monitoring. Here's an honest look at where each real alternative actually fits.
Intruder.io
Intruder is a strong, broad-coverage vulnerability scanner with a clean interface, aimed at the same "developer-friendly, not just for security teams" audience Detectify targets. It's a reasonable lateral move if your main complaint with Detectify is workflow rather than price - Intruder's tiers are priced comparably rather than meaningfully cheaper. It doesn't include dark web monitoring either.
Acunetix (Invicti)
If your priority is proof-based scanning - actual exploit verification that reduces false positives to nearly zero, rather than confidence-scored findings - Acunetix is the more accurate option and a genuine step up in that specific dimension. The tradeoff is cost and process: enterprise pricing (roughly $4,500+/year) and a sales-driven onboarding, not a self-serve signup.
OWASP ZAP (Free, Self-Hosted)
If budget is the entire problem, ZAP is free, open-source, and genuinely capable in the hands of someone willing to configure scan policies and host it themselves. It has no dark web monitoring, no cloud storage exposure checks, and no managed hosting - you're trading Detectify's subscription cost for your own DevOps time to run and maintain it.
Qualys WAS / Tenable.io WAS
Both are enterprise DAST platforms that make sense specifically if you're already invested in the broader Qualys or Tenable ecosystem for infrastructure vulnerability management and want web application scanning under the same vendor and dashboard. Neither is meaningfully cheaper than Detectify on its own, and both involve the same enterprise sales process.
Shieldome
Shieldome's honest pitch, not a spin on it: it includes what Detectify splits into separate billed modules (application scanning + surface monitoring) in one plan, plus dark web and infostealer monitoring, cloud storage exposure checks, and AI-assisted remediation - starting at $30/month with a free scan to start, no card required. It doesn't have Detectify's crowdsourced ethical-hacker vulnerability database, which is a genuine differentiator Detectify has that Shieldome doesn't try to replicate.
Which One Actually Fits
| Your priority | Best fit |
|---|---|
| Maximum scan accuracy, budget isn't the constraint | Acunetix |
| Zero budget, willing to self-host and configure | OWASP ZAP |
| Already on Qualys/Tenable for infrastructure | Qualys WAS / Tenable WAS |
| One plan covering scanning + monitoring + dark web, lower cost | Shieldome |
Leaving Acunetix instead? See our Acunetix alternatives guide. For the full feature-by-feature breakdown against Shieldome specifically, see our Shieldome vs Detectify comparison. Our guide to choosing a security scanner covers the evaluation criteria (OWASP coverage, false positive rate, report quality) worth checking regardless of which one you pick. Try Shieldome free - no card required.