holistic.dev vs hostedscan.com vs Imperva: Which Is Right for You in 2026?

These three aren't direct competitors, but they're the closest of any trio in this set to genuinely complementary: holistic.dev catches SQL issues in source…

holistic.dev

Contact for pricing

Best for: Development teams that want SQL source code reviewed for performance, security, and architecture problems without ever connecting a scanner to the live database.

hostedscan.com

Subscription · From $39/month (billed annually at $468/year)

Best for: Teams wanting one affordable dashboard that runs Nmap, OpenVAS, Nessus, OWASP ZAP, and Nuclei continuously against live websites, servers, networks, and APIs.

Imperva

Contact for pricing

Best for: Large organizations that need active, production-grade defenses - WAF, bot protection, DDoS mitigation, API security, and data security - rather than just detection or scanning.

At a Glance

 holistic.devhostedscan.comImperva
Primary categorySecuritySecuritySecurity
RatingNot documentedNot documentedNot documented
Pricing modelContact for pricingSubscriptionContact for pricing
Starting priceNot documented$39/month (billed annually at $468/year)Not documented
Free planNot documentedNot documentedNot documented
Free trialNot documentedNot documentedNot documented
PlatformsWebWebWeb
Team collaborationNot documentedNot documentedNot documented
AI featuresNot documentedNot documentedYes
Public APINot documentedYesYes

Standout Differences

Three different layers of an app security pipeline

holistic.dev works pre-deployment on SQL source code, hostedscan.com works post-deployment by scanning live infrastructure, and Imperva works in production by actively blocking attacks. A mature security program could plausibly use all three at different stages rather than picking one.

holistic.dev, hostedscan.com, Imperva

hostedscan.com aggregates known open-source scanners instead of building proprietary detection

hostedscan.com's core value proposition is combining Nmap, OpenVAS, Nessus, OWASP ZAP, and Nuclei into a single dashboard for continuous scanning, rather than developing its own detection engine from scratch. That's a meaningfully different architecture from Imperva's proprietary enterprise WAF and data security stack.

hostedscan.com

Only Imperva actively blocks attacks

holistic.dev and hostedscan.com are both detection tools - they find problems in code or live infrastructure but don't stop an attack in progress. Imperva is the only one of the three offering active production defenses like a WAF, bot protection, and DDoS mitigation.

Imperva

A stark pricing accessibility gap

hostedscan.com publishes a clear, affordable price ($39/month, or $468/year billed annually), while both holistic.dev and Imperva are contact-for-pricing with no public numbers. That makes hostedscan.com the only one of the three a small team can realistically self-serve into without a sales conversation.

holistic.dev, hostedscan.com, Imperva

Feature-by-Feature

Core Capability

Featureholistic.devhostedscan.comImperva
SQL source code static analysisAvailableUnavailableUnavailable
Continuous live network/web/API vulnerability scanningUnavailableAvailableNot documented
Web application firewall (WAF)UnavailableUnavailableAvailable
Bot protection and DDoS mitigationUnavailableUnavailableAvailable
Data security controlsUnavailableUnavailableAvailable

Deployment & Access

Featureholistic.devhostedscan.comImperva
Requires connecting to a live production systemUnavailableAvailableAvailable
Published self-serve priceUnavailableAvailableUnavailable

Pricing Compared

Starting price reflects the lowest paid tier, not the full cost for every team size or usage level.

holistic.dev

No individual plan breakdown documented yet.

hostedscan.com

Basic — $39/month monthly
Premium — $109/month monthly
Professional — $189/month monthly
Flex — From $3,500/year yearly

Imperva

No individual plan breakdown documented yet.

Pros & Cons

holistic.dev

Pros

  • No database connection or data access required to run analysis
  • Large rule set (1,300+) covering performance, cost, and security
  • Fast onboarding, reported at around 10 minutes
  • Shareable reports simplify team collaboration
  • Privacy-friendly approach for teams with strict data governance

Cons

  • Currently supports only PostgreSQL 13, with MySQL and Snowflake still pending
  • Pricing is not published and requires contacting the vendor
  • Limited independent reviews or case studies available publicly
  • Static analysis alone may miss issues that only appear at runtime

hostedscan.com

Pros

  • Unifies five established scanning engines in one platform instead of five separate tools
  • Compliance-oriented reporting for SOC 2 and ISO 27001
  • Serves large, recognizable customers including Porsche and Expedia Group
  • White-label reporting available for MSPs/MSSPs on the Professional plan
  • Clear, published pricing tiers starting at $39/month

Cons

  • Higher tiers needed for authenticated and internal network scanning
  • Custom Flex plan for larger scanning volumes starts at $3,500/year and requires contacting sales
  • Founded year and headquarters are not publicly documented
  • All published plans include only 5 scan targets by default; more require add-on pricing

Imperva

Pros

  • Broad coverage across both application security and data security
  • Backing and resources of Thales Group following the 2023 acquisition
  • Recognized as a leader by multiple analyst firms including Gartner Peer Insights and Forrester
  • Protects a large scale of enterprise traffic (6,200+ enterprises cited)
  • Covers modern threat categories like API abuse and AI application security

Cons

  • No public pricing; requires a sales conversation to get a quote
  • Enterprise-oriented, which may be more than smaller teams need
  • Complex product portfolio can require dedicated security staff to configure fully
  • Post-acquisition integration with Thales may affect roadmap or support processes over time

Use Cases

Choose holistic.dev: Development teams that want SQL source code reviewed for performance, security, and architecture problems without ever connecting a scanner to the live database.
Choose hostedscan.com: Teams wanting one affordable dashboard that runs Nmap, OpenVAS, Nessus, OWASP ZAP, and Nuclei continuously against live websites, servers, networks, and APIs.
Choose Imperva: Large organizations that need active, production-grade defenses - WAF, bot protection, DDoS mitigation, API security, and data security - rather than just detection or scanning.

holistic.dev

  • Pre-Production SQL Review — Catch performance and security issues in SQL code before it ships to production.
  • Database Cost Optimization — Identify unused tables, indexes, and columns that can be removed to reduce storage and query costs.
  • Privacy-Conscious Database Auditing — Audit database design without granting a third-party tool access to live data.

hostedscan.com

  • Continuous Vulnerability Monitoring — Run automated daily scans across websites, servers, networks, and APIs to catch new vulnerabilities early.
  • Compliance Audit Preparation — Generate audit-ready vulnerability reports to support SOC 2 or ISO 27001 certification efforts.
  • White-Label Security Services — Use branded reports and multi-scanner coverage to offer vulnerability scanning as a service to clients.

Imperva

  • Web application protection — Deploy a WAF and bot mitigation in front of customer-facing applications.
  • API security — Discover and protect APIs from abuse, scraping, and attacks.
  • DDoS mitigation — Absorb large-scale denial-of-service attacks targeting applications or DNS.
  • Data compliance — Discover and classify sensitive data across multicloud environments to support compliance audits.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do holistic.dev, hostedscan.com, and Imperva compete for the same security budget?

Not really. They operate at different stages of an application security lifecycle: holistic.dev analyzes SQL source code before it's deployed, hostedscan.com continuously scans already-deployed websites, servers, networks, and APIs for vulnerabilities, and Imperva actively defends production applications with a WAF, bot protection, and DDoS mitigation. A team could reasonably use all three together rather than choosing just one.

Which of these three is cheapest and easiest to start using?

hostedscan.com, by a wide margin on transparency. It publishes a clear starting price of $39/month ($468/year billed annually). Both holistic.dev and Imperva are contact-for-pricing with no public numbers, which typically means a longer sales process before you know the cost.

Does holistic.dev scan a live production database?

No. holistic.dev explicitly analyzes SQL source code to flag performance, security, and architecture issues without ever connecting to the live database or its data. That's a meaningful distinction from hostedscan.com and Imperva, both of which interact with live, running systems.

What scanning engines power hostedscan.com?

hostedscan.com combines several established open-source security scanners - Nmap, OpenVAS, Nessus, OWASP ZAP, and Nuclei - into one unified dashboard for continuous scanning of websites, servers, networks, and APIs, rather than relying on a single proprietary engine.

Is Imperva a good fit for a small startup?

Probably not as a starting point. Imperva is built for large, regulated organizations and is sold entirely through custom, contact-for-pricing sales, with no published self-serve plan. A smaller team is more likely to start with hostedscan.com for affordable vulnerability scanning and holistic.dev for SQL code review, then evaluate an enterprise-grade WAF like Imperva as they scale.

Read the full holistic.dev review · Read the full hostedscan.com review · Read the full Imperva review