AI Visibility Rankings · Security

Application security testing tools: AI search visibility ranking (2026)

By monitoraeo Last updated July 06, 2026 Refreshed every 30 days

How AI search engines rank application security testing tools by visibility and citations. 20 brands measured monthly across Google AI Mode: which brands the AI names in answers, which domains it cites as sources, and how the leaders compare. Application security testing tools used to identify vulnerabilities in code, APIs, and running applications through static, dynamic, software composition, and runtime testing workflows. Composite score: 70% visibility (% of AI answers naming the brand) + 30% citation rate (% citing the brand's domain). Full methodology →

Avg visibility across category

11%

Avg citation rate

20/20

Brands successfully audited

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When AI engines like ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity answer questions about application security testing tools, Mend comes up most often, appearing in 25% of AI-generated responses and earning citations in 37.5% of sourced answers. Checkmarx and Snyk round out the top three, making these three brands the most consistently recommended options across the major AI platforms right now.

The sources AI engines pull from most heavily in this category are aikido.dev, cycode.com, endorlabs.com, beaglesecurity.com, and ox.security. These are mostly vendor and practitioner-focused security blogs rather than large aggregator review sites, which means AI rankings here reflect topical authority and technical credibility in the appsec space more than review volume. A brand covered by these outlets has earned recognition from peers in the field.

For a buyer using this page, the concrete takeaway is to cross-check any shortlisted tool against recent coverage on these practitioner sources, not just analyst reports. AI engines weight current, technically specific content from credible security outlets, so a tool with strong recent presence there will keep appearing in AI recommendations. If a vendor has gone quiet in this ecosystem, their AI visibility will likely fade even if their product remains solid.

At a glance

Category leader Mend 25% visibility · named in 2 of 8 AI answers

Most cited brand Mend 38% citation rate · the AI's most-trusted source brand in application security testing tools

Top cited domain aikido.dev Referenced by AI across the application security testing tools query set — the highest-leverage PR target in this category

Visibility spread 25pp Gap between top and bottom of the ranking · 14 brands at 0% (invisible to the AI)

What we observed in this category

Mend leads the application security testing tools category with a composite score of 28.8, ahead of Checkmarx and Snyk who both sit at 21.2. The gap is driven almost entirely by citation rate: Mend is cited in 37.5% of responses versus 12.5% for each of those two rivals. With the category average visibility at just 5.6%, all three top brands are performing well above the norm, but Mend's citation advantage is the clearest differentiator in this data set.

Appknox and Invicti present a striking divergence between visibility and citation. Both score zero for visibility yet both carry a 37.5% citation rate, identical to Mend. This means Google AI Mode is referencing these brands as sources or supporting evidence without naming them in direct answers. Veracode shows the inverse pattern, appearing in 12.5% of responses but receiving zero citations, suggesting it is named but not trusted enough to be linked as a source.

Google AI Mode is the top engine for every brand in the data set. The most-cited external sources are third-party review and security-focused domains, including aikido.dev, comparitech.com, endorlabs.com, and beaglesecurity.com, alongside vendor sites like invicti.com and cycode.com. This indicates Google AI Mode is anchoring its answers on comparative and editorial content rather than pulling exclusively from vendor homepages, which explains why brands with strong third-party coverage can accumulate citation share without direct answer placement.

Movers & shakers since last refresh

Biggest visibility fallers

Mend 38% → 25% · rank #1 → #1
-12pp
Veracode 25% → 12% · rank #2 → #7
-12pp
Sonar 25% → 12% · rank #5 → #8
-12pp

The ranking

#	Brand	Visibility	Citation	Top engine
1	Mend mend.io	25%	38%	Google AI Mode
Mend holds a composite score of 28.8, the highest in the category, powered by a 37.5% citation rate that is three times the 12.5% rate of Checkmarx and Snyk.
2	Checkmarx checkmarx.com	25%	12%	Google AI Mode
Checkmarx matches Mend on visibility at 25% but its 12.5% citation rate pulls its composite score down to 21.2, roughly 27% below Mend's overall score.
3	Snyk snyk.io	25%	12%	Google AI Mode
Snyk shares an identical composite score of 21.2 and identical visibility and citation figures with Checkmarx, making the two statistically indistinguishable in this data set.
4	Contrast Security contrastsecurity.com	12%	12%	Google AI Mode
Contrast Security scores 12.5 on both visibility and citation, placing it below the top three but above the category average visibility of 5.6% without any citation-visibility gap.
5	Appknox appknox.com	0%	38%	Google AI Mode
Appknox has zero visibility yet a 37.5% citation rate, the highest citation figure in the data set alongside Mend and Invicti, producing a composite score of 11.2.
6	Invicti invicti.com	0%	38%	Google AI Mode
7	Veracode veracode.com	12%	0%	Google AI Mode
8	Sonar sonarsource.com	12%	0%	Google AI Mode
9	Apiiro apiiro.com	0%	25%	Google AI Mode
10	StackHawk stackhawk.com	0%	25%	Google AI Mode
11	Escape escape.tech	0%	12%	Google AI Mode
12	GitHub Advanced Security github.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
13	Semgrep semgrep.dev	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
14	Synopsys synopsys.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
15	Detectify detectify.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
16	Acunetix acunetix.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
17	HCL AppScan hcltech.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
18	Rapid7 rapid7.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
19	NowSecure nowsecure.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
20	ArmorCode armorcode.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode

Sources AI engines trust in this category

Across the 8 buyer-intent queries we ran on application security testing tools, these are the domains Google AI Mode cited most often. If you're not on this list — or if your competitors are — that's a concrete PR / linkbuilding target.

aikido.devcycode.comendorlabs.combeaglesecurity.comox.securitycomparitech.cominvicti.combrightsec.com

How to read this ranking

Four things worth knowing before you act on the numbers above. These are the same definitions across every industry page — for category-specific observations, see the What we observed section above (where available) and the per-brand insights inline in the ranking.

Visibility = being named

A brand's visibility % is the share of AI answers that mention it by name in the response prose. This is who AI engines actively recommend to the buyer. More on visibility →

Citation rate = being trusted

Citation rate is the share of AI answers that include the brand's domain as a clickable source link. This is what the AI treats as authoritative evidence, different from being named. More on citation rate →

Top engine differs by brand

The "top engine" column shows which AI surface each brand performs best on. Big gaps between a brand's score across engines usually points to specific content or schema gaps. How AI engines pick sources →

Rankings move month to month

AI engines re-crawl and re-rank on shorter cycles than classical search. We re-audit every brand on this list at least every 30 days and refresh this page automatically. How AI search ranking works →

Get your own application security testing tools brand audited

The brands above were curated from public market-leader lists. Want the same measurement against your own brand — including the queries you appear on, which competitors get named instead, and a prioritised fix list? Run a free preview.

Audit your application security testing tools brand → Browse all rankings Methodology →

Frequently asked about application security testing tools AI visibility

Who leads AI visibility in application security testing tools?

Mend leads with a composite score of 28.8 and a 37.5% citation rate, ahead of Checkmarx and Snyk who both score 21.2. All three share the same 25% visibility rate, so citation rate is the deciding factor.

What sources does Google AI Mode cite most for application security testing research?

The most-cited sources in this category include aikido.dev, comparitech.com, endorlabs.com, beaglesecurity.com, and cycode.com, indicating a reliance on third-party editorial and comparison sites alongside some vendor domains.

Which brands are cited frequently but rarely named in AI answers?

Appknox and Invicti both show 0% visibility alongside a 37.5% citation rate, meaning Google AI Mode links to or references their content without placing them in direct answer text.

Which brands have lost the most AI visibility recently in this category?

Mend, Veracode, and Sonar are the three biggest visibility fallers, each dropping 12.5 percentage points. Veracode also fell five rank positions and lost 25 percentage points of citation rate.

How does the average visibility in this category compare to the top brands?

The category average visibility is 5.6%, while the top three brands each sit at 25%, meaning the leaders are running at roughly four to five times the category average.

Is there any brand with high visibility but no citation support from AI responses?

Veracode and Sonar both appear in 12.5% of responses but have a 0% citation rate, suggesting they are named in AI answers without being used as referenced sources.