TL;DR: Detectify is a strong tool built for security teams. It watches fleets of subdomains. As of July 2026, its Surface Monitoring plan lists from about $249 a month, billed yearly. Most indie founders need less than that. They need an answer on one product, not a console to run. This guide compares five options on price, effort, and fit. They are Intruder, Aikido, HostedScan, OWASP ZAP, and our own audit service. It also shows the one flaw class that every generic scanner misses in AI-built apps.
Why founders go looking for a Detectify alternative?
The risks described here map to established security standards. The OWASP Top 10 catalogues the most prevalent web application vulnerabilities — the same classes that appear most frequently in AI-generated codebases. NIST’s National Vulnerability Database (NVD) provides authoritative CVSS severity scores for each disclosed vulnerability class.
Launch Ready Code benchmark: across the 700+ apps we've scanned, the average Launch Readiness Score is ~44/100 — most ship with at least one critical finding. — LRC scan data, 2026
Launch Ready Code has scanned 700+ applications. Most ship with at least one critical finding, and the average Launch Readiness Score is ~44 out of 100 — LRC scan data, 2026.
Detectify is good software. That is not the issue. The issue is who it was built for.
Detectify sells two things. Surface Monitoring watches your whole edge — every subdomain, every exposed service. It lists from about $249 a month for up to 25 subdomains, billed yearly. Application Scanning tests one web app in depth. It starts near $70 a month per scan profile. Public deal data puts many small-team deals at $12,000 to $25,000 a year once assets add up.
That money buys a tool you run. Detectify hands you findings. Someone on your side has to read them, sort real risk from noise, and fix the code. Security teams do that every week. That is the job.
An indie founder who shipped a product with Lovable, Bolt, Replit, or Cursor has a different problem. You have one app, not 25 subdomains. Nobody on the team reads scanner output for a living. You do not need a console that keeps producing findings. You need two answers: is my product safe to launch, and what do I fix first.
Tools and answers are different buys. Keep that split in mind through the whole list below.
What is short list: five alternatives compared?
| Option | Entry price (Jul 2026) | Built for | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Detectify | ~$249/mo yearly (Surface Monitoring); ~$70/mo per scan profile (App Scanning) | Security teams | Constant attack-surface watch, crowd-tested payloads |
| Intruder | $149/mo | Startups chasing compliance | Scheduled scans, clean reports for auditors |
| Aikido | Free tier; paid from ~$350/mo | Dev teams | Code, package, and cloud scanning in one place |
| HostedScan | Free (3 targets); paid from $29/mo | Budget scans | Open-source scanners, hosted and scheduled for you |
| OWASP ZAP | Free | DIY | The standard open-source scanner. You run it, you read it |
| Launch Ready Code | Free scan; full audit $499 one-time | Founders of AI-built apps | A scored audit and a ranked fix list — an answer, not a console |
Prices are list prices at the time of writing. Vendors change plans, so check before you buy.
What is flaw class every generic scanner misses?
Before the tool-by-tool detail, one tech point. It decides whether a paid scanner helps you at all.
Generic scanners test for known flaw patterns: the OWASP Top 10, stale software versions, weak headers. Useful checks. We run some of the same ones. But the most common serious failure in AI-built apps is not on that list.
It is missing row-level security on the database. AI builders love Supabase and Firebase. Both put the database key in your frontend by design. The only wall between users is the access policy on each table. AI tools skip those policies constantly. We wrote up the pattern in our Supabase RLS guide. The same hole shows up in storage buckets too.
Here is the catch. A missing policy is not a CVE. It is an access-design flaw. A request that reads another user’s data looks normal to a generic scanner. Valid request, valid response, HTTP 200. Nothing to flag.
Catching it takes two steps: know the stack, then test that stack’s failure modes. That is how our scanner works, and the checks are real code you can name:
platformFingerprintScanner.js:28flags a*.supabase.cohost at0.99confidence, from DNS and page source alone.platformFingerprintScanner.js:101catchessupabase.createClientin your shipped JavaScript bundle at0.95.- Once Supabase is confirmed, the rule at
platformFingerprintScanner.js:398raises the warning that matters. The anon key is public by design. Those rules are the only wall around each table.
Missing rate limiting. Our load probe counts the share of test requests that come back 429 (k6Scanner.js:45, scored at k6Scanner.js:117). Zero 429s means one script can hammer your login or your AI endpoint all night. Full write-up in our rate limiting guide.
The average score across the AI-built apps we've scanned is ~44/100. The gap is almost never exotic. It is these platform-shaped holes — the ones a generic tool has no reason to look for. Our database hardening checklist covers the fixes.
What is five alternatives, one by one?
What should you know about Intruder — the compliance-friendly scanner?
Intruder starts at $149 a month. It does scheduled scanning well. Reports are clean, and auditors take them. If a customer contract says “show monthly scans,” Intruder is the low-drama way to say yes. If a law pushed you here, check which EU AI Act risk tier your SaaS is in. Scanners do not answer that question.
The honest catch: it is still a tool you run. Findings arrive, and triage is on you. It also has the same blind spot as the rest of this list.
What should you know about Aikido — the code-side platform?
Aikido scans from the inside: your repos, your packages, your secrets, your cloud. The free tier is generous for small teams. It is a strong pick if you write code daily. One dashboard beats six point tools.
Two catches. Paid plans jump to about $350 a month, a steep step from free. And it needs repo access, plus a dev who acts on findings. It tests your code, not your running product from an attacker’s view.
What should you know about HostedScan — the budget pick?
HostedScan wraps trusted open-source scanners: ZAP, OpenVAS, nmap. It runs them for you on a schedule. Free covers 3 targets. Paid starts at $29 a month. For raw scanning per dollar, nothing on this list beats it.
The catch is the output. You get open-source scanner results, hosted. Reading them and ranking them is still your job.
What should you know about OWASP ZAP — the free DIY route?
ZAP is the standard open-source web scanner, and it is very good. Pros use it every day. The price is zero.
The real cost is time and skill. You set it up, point it at the right targets, and read raw findings. If you know the field, ZAP can do a paid tool’s job. If you do not, the output is noise with no ranking. Our guide on how to read a security report helps. But there is no way around the learning curve.
What should you know about Launch Ready Code — the audit, not the console?
We built Launch Ready Code for one buyer. You shipped a SaaS product, website, or app with AI tools. You want to know if it is safe to launch. So the shape is different. It is not a subscription console. It is an answer.
The free scan reads your live URL from the outside. It returns a Launch Readiness Score out of 100 in about 30 seconds. The full Launch Readiness Audit is $499, one-time. It digs into four areas: security, reliability, performance, and monitoring. The report ships a fix roadmap ranked by risk. It adds time estimates per issue and a benchmark against 200+ audited apps. Platform-aware checks like the Supabase rules above run on every scan. Want eyes on it every day after the fixes? Plans start at $149 a month.
Honest limits, because that is the house style: we are not an attack-surface platform. If you run 40 subdomains and have an engineer for this work, Detectify or Intruder will serve you better. We would rather say that here than have you find out later. Our full security tools round-up covers more of the field.
How to choose in five minutes?
- You have a security team and many domains. Stay with Detectify, or trial Intruder against it on price. These tools were made for you.
- You need a monthly scan report for a compliance form. Intruder at $149 a month is the shortest path. Aikido if the ask is code-side.
- You have zero budget and real technical skill. ZAP, or HostedScan’s free plan to save setup time. Budget your own hours for triage. That cost is real, as our audit cost breakdown shows.
- You have one AI-built product and launch is close. Get an answer, not a console. Run the free scan and fix what it flags. Buy the full audit if the score or the stakes demand it.
See your score before you pick any tool?
The free scan reads your live URL from the outside — DNS, page source, public endpoints — and returns a Launch Readiness Score out of 100 in about 30 seconds. No signup, no code access, no sales call.
Run the free scan — $0FAQ
What is the best Detectify alternative for a solo founder?
It depends on what you need. Want a cheap scheduled scanner? HostedScan starts free for 3 targets, with paid plans from $29 a month. Need scan reports for a compliance form? Intruder starts at $149 a month. If you want an answer instead of a console, get a one-time audit. A scored review of one product, with a ranked fix list, fits a founder better than any monthly scanner. That is the shape of a service like Launch Ready Code.
How much does Detectify cost?
As of July 2026, Surface Monitoring lists from about $249 a month for up to 25 subdomains, billed yearly. Application Scanning starts near $70 a month per scan profile. Public deal data puts many small-team deals at $12,000 to $25,000 a year. Exact quotes depend on how many assets you track.
Is there a free alternative to Detectify?
Yes, three real ones. OWASP ZAP is free and open source. But you run it and read the raw results yourself. HostedScan has a free plan that covers 3 targets with open-source scanners run for you. Aikido has a free tier for small teams that scans code and packages. Free scanners still leave the triage with you. Someone has to decide which findings matter.
Do I need a vulnerability scanner or a security audit?
A scanner is a monthly tool. It finds known flaw patterns and hands you a list to triage. An audit is a one-time review. It scores your product, ranks findings by risk, and tells you what to fix first. Teams with staff for this work get value from scanners. A founder with one product, and no training in this field, usually needs the audit first. A light watch plan can come after the fixes.
Why do generic scanners miss problems in AI-built apps?
Generic scanners test for known flaw classes such as the OWASP Top 10. The most common failure in AI-built apps is different. It is missing row-level security on a Supabase or Firebase database. That is an access-design flaw, not a known CVE pattern. A request that reads another user’s data looks normal to the scanner. Catching it takes platform-aware checks. First detect the stack, then test the failure modes of that exact stack.
Can I just use OWASP ZAP instead of paying for a scanner?
You can, and the price is right. ZAP is the standard open-source web scanner, and it is very good. The cost is your time. You have to set it up, run it against the right targets, read the raw findings, and sort real risks from noise. If you know the field, ZAP can do a paid tool's job. If you do not, the report will not tell you what matters or what to fix first.
Run the free scan — $0, about 30 seconds
Research sources
- OWASP Foundation — OWASP Top 10 Web Application Security Risks (2021), the industry-standard vulnerability taxonomy referenced for all security categories in this article
- MITRE Corporation — CWE Top 25 Most Dangerous Software Weaknesses (2024), the weakness classification used to rank and prioritise code-level findings
- NIST National Vulnerability Database — NVD CVE severity ratings; all CVSS scores cited here are drawn from published NVD records
- Jai Mittal, Founder & CTO, Launch Ready Code — Proprietary data from 700+ AI-built app security audits, 2025–2026. Average Launch Readiness Score: 44/100. Most common critical failures: missing HTTP security headers (83% of scans), no rate limiting on auth endpoints (71%), exposed API keys or secrets (67%), absent database Row Level Security (58%).
Frequently asked questions about Detectify alternatives
Why is Detectify expensive for indie founders?
Detectify is priced for enterprise security teams and funded startups. Plans start at $500+ per month and require a sales conversation. That pricing model assumes a dedicated security budget and a team to act on findings. Solo founders and small teams shipping AI-built apps need a tool that delivers actionable results immediately, costs less than a monthly coffee budget to start, and does not require onboarding. The alternatives on this page start free or at $149 per month.
Does Launch Ready Code replace Detectify?
Launch Ready Code replaces the URL-based scanning that Detectify offers at the entry level, while adding coverage for reliability, performance, and monitoring — dimensions Detectify does not address. It does not replicate Detectify’s DAST crawler or its integration with Detectify’s crowdsourced vulnerability database. If your requirement is automated URL-based scanning at a fraction of Detectify’s cost, LRC covers that. If you need Detectify’s specific crawler-based attack surface discovery, those use cases differ.
What is the fastest way to find what Detectify would find, for free?
The fastest equivalent to a Detectify entry scan is the free Launch Ready Code scan — paste a URL, get a Launch Readiness Score across security, reliability, performance, and monitoring in about 30 seconds. For headers specifically, Mozilla Observatory is free and checks the same HTTP security headers Detectify covers. For dependencies, npm audit is built into Node. Together these three free tools cover the most common issues Detectify finds at entry level — in under two minutes, with no signup.
Can I use OWASP ZAP instead of Detectify?
OWASP ZAP is a free, open-source DAST scanner. It left OWASP in September 2023 and is now maintained by Checkmarx (branded “ZAP by Checkmarx”) as an open-source Linux Foundation project. It can find many of the same vulnerability classes as Detectify. The practical difference is operational: ZAP requires setup, configuration, and a security-literate user to interpret results. Detectify is managed-as-a-service. ZAP is the right choice for security engineers who want a free, flexible scanner and can invest the setup time. For founders who want to paste a URL and get an immediate prioritized result, ZAP is the wrong tool — compare it against the alternatives listed above instead.
Do any Detectify alternatives work for AI-built apps specifically?
Yes. Launch Ready Code detects which AI tool built your app — Lovable, Bolt, Cursor, Replit, Windsurf, v0.dev, Claude Code, and others — and applies platform-specific checks. For example, a Lovable app gets a Supabase RLS check (the gap behind CVE-2025-48757). A Bolt app gets a header and rate-limit check. No other Detectify alternative on this page has equivalent platform-aware scanning as of mid-2026. Detectify itself has no published platform-specific rules for AI builders.