42Crunch vs Checkmarx

42Crunch positions itself as an API security gateway, sitting inline to enforce policies as traffic passes through. This architecture favors teams that want runtime protection and centralized enforcement. middleBrick is a self-service black-box scanner submitted to a URL, requiring no agents, SDKs, or code access. It suits organizations that want to assess API risk without changing deployment topology or managing infrastructure.

42Crunch offers a broad set of runtime security capabilities, including policy enforcement, threat protection, and traffic transformation, with API-specific features tied to its gateway model. Its testing approach is oriented around active enforcement and inline inspection. middleBrick focuses on detection through black-box scanning of read-only methods (GET and HEAD) plus text-only POST for LLM probes. It maps findings to OWASP API Top 10 (2023), PCI-DSS 4.0, and SOC 2 Type II, and supports OpenAPI 3.0, 3.1, and Swagger 2.0 with recursive $ref resolution that cross-references spec definitions against runtime behavior.

Both tools support authenticated scanning, but with different guardrails. middleBrick requires domain verification via DNS TXT record or an HTTP well-known file so that only the domain owner can scan with credentials, and it forwards a strict allowlist of headers including Authorization, X-API-Key, Cookie, and X-Custom-*. 42Crunch integrates with API gateways and service meshes to apply policies for authenticated contexts, with configuration options for traffic inspection and access control lists.

42Crunch integrates at the infrastructure layer, often deployed as a gateway or sidecar, and is designed for continuous enforcement rather than periodic assessment. middleBrick offers multiple consumption paths: a Web Dashboard for reports and score trends, a CLI via an npm package for local runs, a GitHub Action for CI/CD gates that can fail builds based on score thresholds, an MCP Server for AI coding assistants, and a programmatic API for custom integrations. For ongoing risk management, middleBrick provides Pro-tier continuous monitoring with scheduled rescans, diff detection across scans, email alerts rate-limited to one per hour per API, and HMAC-SHA256 signed webhooks with auto-disable after five consecutive failures.

42Crunch typically follows a subscription model tied to gateway throughput or node count, with pricing negotiated per deployment. middleBrick uses a tiered approach: Free for three scans per month and CLI access, Starter at 99 dollars per month for fifteen APIs with dashboard and email alerts, Pro at 499 dollars per month for one hundred APIs with continuous monitoring and CI/CD integration, and Enterprise at 2000 dollars per month for unlimited APIs and dedicated support. middleBrick surfaces findings relevant to compliance evidence and helps you prepare for audits aligned with PCI-DSS 4.0, SOC 2 Type II, and OWASP API Top 10 (2023), while noting that it does not certify or guarantee compliance.