Application Security Testing

Artificial intelligence, modern application designs and increased software supply chain risks are expanding the AST market scope. Cybersecurity leaders can identify and manage risk within applications by integrating and automating AST throughout software life cycles.

Market Definition

Gartner defines the application security testing (AST) market as consisting of providers of products that enable organizations to assess applications for the presence and management of risk. These products identify risk by evaluating source code, performing runtime tests and inspecting supply chain components. AST products can be integrated throughout development workflows for continuous assessment or be used to perform ad hoc evaluations. They enable organizations to manage application risks by providing an integrated set of capabilities for risk identification, prioritization and triage, policy evaluation and enforcement, and remediation assistance. Market offerings are available in on-premises, SaaS and hybrid delivery models.

Organizations leverage AST products to assess applications for the presence of security vulnerabilities and other risks (e.g., legal and operational) throughout their life cycle. These assessments are used to measure and manage the risks within individual applications, application components or groups of applications in the context of their business criticality and other key attributes (e.g., environment, sensitive data handling, etc.). AST products further enable organizations to evaluate software for compliance with internal policies as well as regulatory requirements established by governments or authoritative industry groups.

Report 2025

Here is a summary of the vendors featured in the Gartner magic quadrant 2025 report.
For the full analysis and detailed insights, you can read the report here and view the magic quadrant graphic here.

Market Status	Market Vendor
Leader	Black Duck
Leader	Checkmarx
Leader	Veracode
Leader	Snyk
Leader	OpenText
Leader	HCLSoftware
Visionary	JFrog
Visionary	Sonatype
Visionary	Contrast Security
Visionary	Mend.io
Niche Player	Semgrep
Niche Player	Cycode
Niche Player	Apiiro
Challenger	GitHub
Challenger	GitLab
Challenger	Data Theorem

Report 2024

Here is a summary of the vendors featured in the Gartner magic quadrant 2024 report.
For the full analysis and detailed insights, you can read the report here and view the magic quadrant graphic here.

Market Status	Market Vendor
Leader	Synopsys
Leader	Veracode
Leader	Checkmarx
Leader	OpenText
Leader	Snyk
Visionary	Contrast Security
Visionary	Mend.io
Niche Player	Onapsis
Niche Player	Sonatype
Challenger	GitLab
Challenger	HCLSoftware
Challenger	GitHub