Offensive360 vs Semgrep — SAST Comparison
Compare Offensive360 and Semgrep for static application security testing. See how they differ in analysis approach, DAST capabilities, deployment options, and pricing.
Overview
Offensive360 and Semgrep represent different philosophies in application security. Semgrep is a pattern-matching SAST tool with an open-source foundation and a commercial AppSec Platform built on top. Offensive360 is a security-focused platform combining SAST and DAST with flexible deployment options. This comparison covers the key differences.
Important note: This comparison is based on publicly available information. We’ve aimed to be fair and accurate, but product capabilities change. We recommend verifying specific features with each vendor before making a decision.
Quick comparison
| Feature | Offensive360 | Semgrep |
|---|---|---|
| Primary focus | Security (SAST + DAST) | SAST + SCA + Secrets |
| SAST | Yes | Yes |
| DAST | Yes (built-in) | No |
| SCA | No | Yes (with reachability analysis) |
| Secrets detection | No | Yes |
| Languages | 17+ (10 built-in + 7 AI) | 30+ |
| AI-powered analysis | Yes (7 additional languages) | Yes (AI triage in paid tier) |
| On-premise deployment | Yes (OVA appliance) | CLI runs locally; dashboard is cloud |
| Cloud/SaaS | Yes | Yes |
| Air-gapped deployment | Yes | Partial (CLI only, no dashboard) |
| Open source tier | No | Yes (Community Edition, LGPL 2.1) |
| Custom rules | No | Yes (pattern-based rule authoring) |
| Pricing model | Per-project/instance | Free CE; $35/contributor/month (Teams) |
Where Offensive360 may be a better fit
Built-in DAST
Semgrep is a static analysis tool — it does not scan running applications. If you need to test web applications for runtime vulnerabilities like authentication bypass, session management flaws, or server misconfigurations, you need a separate DAST tool with Semgrep. Offensive360 provides both SAST and DAST in a single platform with unified reporting.
True on-premise deployment
Semgrep’s CLI can run locally, but the AppSec Platform dashboard and management features are cloud-hosted. Offensive360 ships as a complete OVA appliance — scanning engine, dashboard, reporting, and management all run on your infrastructure with no cloud dependency.
Air-gapped environments
For classified or highly regulated environments, Offensive360 operates fully offline. Semgrep’s CLI can run offline for scanning, but you lose the dashboard, rule updates, and management features that require cloud connectivity.
No per-contributor pricing
Semgrep’s Teams plan costs $35 per contributor per month. For organizations with large development teams, this scales up quickly. Offensive360 uses per-project/instance pricing, which doesn’t penalize you for having more developers.
AI-powered deep analysis
Offensive360 uses AI-powered analysis for Kotlin, Swift, Objective-C, Dart, C/C++, Apex, and Oracle Forms. While Semgrep supports many languages through pattern matching, Offensive360’s AI approach can detect complex security patterns that pattern-based rules may miss, particularly for less common languages.
Security researcher perspective
Offensive360 is built by security researchers focused on finding real vulnerabilities. Its analysis approach is designed for security depth. Semgrep’s pattern-matching approach is flexible and fast, but its effectiveness depends heavily on rule quality and coverage.
Where Semgrep may be a better fit
Open-source foundation
Semgrep Community Edition is free and open-source under LGPL 2.1, with 3,000+ community rules. You can start using Semgrep immediately at no cost. Offensive360 does not have a free tier, though one-time scans are available.
Custom rule authoring
Semgrep’s killer feature is its pattern-based rule language that looks like source code. Security teams can write highly specific rules tailored to their codebase, internal APIs, and coding patterns. This is powerful for teams with unique security requirements.
Broader built-in language support
Semgrep supports 30+ languages with its pattern-matching engine. Offensive360 covers 17+ languages (10 built-in + 7 AI-powered). For polyglot codebases, Semgrep’s broader coverage may be advantageous.
Speed and developer experience
Semgrep is designed for speed — it can scan large monorepos quickly and integrates into developer workflows as a pre-commit hook or CI check. Recent updates deliver up to 3x faster scans on large monorepos while keeping memory below 3 GB.
SCA with reachability analysis
Semgrep’s SCA product includes reachability analysis, determining whether a vulnerable dependency function is actually called by your code. This reduces false positives significantly. Offensive360 does not include SCA.
Secrets detection
Semgrep includes semantic credential detection to find hardcoded secrets in source code. This is a capability Offensive360 does not currently offer as a standalone feature.
Community and ecosystem
Semgrep has a large, active community that contributes rules and shares knowledge. The Semgrep Registry contains thousands of community and pro rules covering common vulnerability patterns.
The bottom line
Choose Offensive360 if you need combined SAST and DAST, require true on-premise or air-gapped deployment, want to avoid per-contributor pricing, or need AI-powered analysis for niche languages.
Choose Semgrep if you want an open-source SAST tool with custom rule authoring, need the fastest possible scanning for developer workflows, want SCA with reachability analysis, or have a team that can write and maintain custom security rules.
Consider using both if you want Semgrep for fast, developer-facing SAST with custom rules and Offensive360 for deeper security analysis and DAST.
Assumptions to verify
- Semgrep’s pricing tiers and contributor limits may have changed. Check their current pricing page.
- Semgrep’s Community Edition vs. AppSec Platform feature differences are important — verify which features require the paid tier.
- The OpenGrep fork of Semgrep may affect the open-source landscape. Check the current status of both projects.
- Semgrep’s cross-file analysis capabilities (Pro tier only) should be compared against Offensive360’s analysis depth for your specific languages.
- Specific detection rates and false positive rates vary by language and rule set for both products.
Ready to see Offensive360 in action?
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