CISO Tribune

Vendor comparison · 2 companies

42Crunch vs StackHawk

42Crunch sells a platform for governing the security of MCP servers, APIs and AI agents at enterprise scale. 42Crunch says it helps enterprises bring AI security under control. 42Crunch describes the job as discovering every MCP server that AI agents expose or consume, securing each one against attack, and assessing compliance with AI regulations and security frameworks. StackHawk sells two plans, Wingman and StackHawk Scale, that run on HawkScan, a runtime testing engine for running applications. CISO Tribune files both under API security and Dynamic application security testing. This page sets the two records side by side: what each sells, where it is based, who owns and funds it, the customers it names and its recent news, each fact numbered to its source.

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Up to four companies side by side.

  • 42Crunch
  • StackHawk
42Crunch vs StackHawk: Products, Customers and Funding Compared
42Crunch42Crunch sells a platform for governing the security of MCP servers, APIs and AI agents at enterprise scale. 42Crunch says it helps enterprises bring AI security under control. 42Crunch describes the job as discovering every MCP server that AI agents expose or consume, securing each one against attack, and assessing compliance with AI regulations and security frameworks.42crunch.comStackHawkStackHawk sells two plans, Wingman and StackHawk Scale, that run on HawkScan, a runtime testing engine for running applications.stackhawk.com
What it sells
  • AI Regulatory Compliance[5]Evaluates every MCP server against regulatory and industry frameworks. Maps each finding to the control it breaches.
  • Wingman[15][16]Runs inside a coding agent and tests the running app.
  • StackHawk Scale[15][16]The plan for security teams covering every app in the organization.
  • HawkScan[3][15]The runtime testing engine that tests the running application with real requests.
Categories
Headquarters
London, United KingdomNot stated on its pages
Founded
Not stated on its pagesNot stated on its pages
Ownership and funding
Not stated on its pagesNot stated on its pages
Named customers
Not stated on its pagesNot stated on its pages
Recent news
  • September 23, 202642Crunch announced the general availability of its MCP Security Governance solution.[8]
  • January 19, 202642Crunch announced the availability of API Contract Generator in developer IDEs.[9]
  • April 30, 2026StackHawk connected its scan findings to Wiz, where they are synced automatically and shown as enrichment data on the Attack Surface Findings page.[12]
  • December 16, 2025StackHawk launched Business Logic Testing, automated multi-user authorization testing aimed at BOLA, BFLA and privilege escalation vulnerabilities.[14]
  • November 20, 2025StackHawk announced an integration that correlates findings from Endor Labs' SAST with StackHawk DAST findings.[13]
G2 and Gartner Peer Insights
  • G2: Not stated on its pages
  • Gartner Peer Insights: Not stated on its pages
  • G2: Not stated on its pages
  • Gartner Peer Insights: Not stated on its pages
Who it fits
From its own pages, 42Crunch sells mainly to enterprise security and platform teams that govern MCP servers, APIs and AI agent security at scale. Its pricing is sized to the number of APIs, MCP servers and users in an organization. Individual developers who use its AI coding agent plugins have a separate self-serve pricing option.Application security and product security teams that need coverage across every app and API are named as buyers, and the Scale plan is for security teams covering every app in the organization. The industries named are financial services, health tech, insurance, media, transportation, education technology, and cloud analytics. Scans are described as fitting into any pipeline and any environment, with no vendor cloud.
Last verified
November 9, 2026November 2, 2026

Where they overlap

  • 42Crunch and StackHawk are both filed under API security and Dynamic application security testing.

Where they differ, field by field

  • 42Crunch's primary category is API security; StackHawk's is Dynamic application security testing.
  • 42Crunch is also filed under AI model and agent security.
  • 42Crunch lists AI Regulatory Compliance. StackHawk lists Wingman, StackHawk Scale and HawkScan.
  • 42Crunch is headquartered in London, United Kingdom.

What it sells: 42Crunch

What AI Regulatory Compliance does[5]
42Crunch continuously evaluates every MCP server against the regulatory and industry frameworks an organization answers to. It maps each finding to the specific control it breaches. The page says compliance posture is computed by the control on every audit and every scan, not assembled from documents afterward. Its headline refers to real-time compliance reporting mapped to five frameworks.

What it sells: StackHawk

What Wingman does[15][16]
Wingman runs inside the coding agent that engineers already use. When the agent finishes a feature, Wingman tests the running app with HawkScan, hands the findings to the same agent, and rescans after the fix.
What StackHawk Scale does[15][16]
StackHawk Scale adds attack surface discovery and program reporting for security teams. StackHawk Scale is priced by team, not by usage.
What HawkScan does[3][15]
HawkScan tests the running application with real requests. StackHawk scans run as a CLI or Docker container that spins up and shuts down per scan. StackHawk scan configuration is YAML config-as-code, versioned alongside the app.

Questions about 42Crunch and StackHawk

What do 42Crunch and StackHawk sell?
42Crunch sells AI Regulatory Compliance. StackHawk sells Wingman, StackHawk Scale and HawkScan.
Are 42Crunch and StackHawk in the same category?
They share API security and Dynamic application security testing. 42Crunch's primary category is API security and StackHawk's is Dynamic application security testing.
Where are 42Crunch and StackHawk headquartered?
42Crunch is headquartered in London, United Kingdom.
Who are 42Crunch and StackHawk sold to?
From its own pages, 42Crunch sells mainly to enterprise security and platform teams that govern MCP servers, APIs and AI agent security at scale. Application security and product security teams that need coverage across every app and API are named as buyers, and the Scale plan is for security teams covering every app in the organization.
What have 42Crunch and StackHawk announced recently?
September 23, 2026: 42Crunch announced the general availability of its MCP Security Governance solution. April 30, 2026: StackHawk connected its scan findings to Wiz, where they are synced automatically and shown as enrichment data on the Attack Surface Findings page.

About 42Crunch

42Crunch sells a platform for governing the security of MCP servers, APIs and AI agents at enterprise scale. 42Crunch says it helps enterprises bring AI security under control. 42Crunch describes the job as discovering every MCP server that AI agents expose or consume, securing each one against attack, and assessing compliance with AI regulations and security frameworks.[4][10]

42Crunch says AI coding agents ship MCP servers faster than any manual inventory process can track. 42Crunch discovers every MCP server across an organization automatically, both sanctioned and shadow alike, audits each one and ranks it by risk. 42Crunch says every request from an AI agent passes through the MCP server before it ever reaches an enterprise system or the API behind it. 42Crunch also says an MCP tool is only as secure as the API it wraps.[4]

42Crunch says its deterministic contract-driven model applies equally to the MCP and API layer. Every MCP server and every API behind it gets a machine-readable contract of its declared surface. In the 42Crunch model, discovery writes the contract, testing measures against it, and runtime enforces it. 42Crunch says the model it uses to secure APIs now extends to the MCP servers AI agents call and expose.[4][6]

On the MCP side, 42Crunch sweeps registries, gateways and repos to surface the shadow servers agents are already calling, then reads each server's advertised tools, resources and prompts and emits a contract. Every finding carries severity, evidence and the fix. 42Crunch fails the build when a server leaves its approved contract, then keeps watching the one in production for new tools, rewritten descriptions and widened permissions.[4]

Tests are generated from the OpenAPI definition and run in the pipeline, covering broken object-level authorization, broken auth, mass assignment and unrestricted resource consumption. All AI generated code is automatically fixed by 42Crunch. For runtime, 42Crunch describes a positive-security firewall assembled from the contract itself, where unknown paths, extra parameters, malformed payloads and over-sharing responses are rejected before they reach the backend.[4]

For compliance, 42Crunch says the EU AI Act, ISO 42001, NIST AI RMF, CSA AICM and OWASP are all tagged automatically on every audit. A security review doubles as compliance evidence without extra work. Each finding arrives already tied to the control it answers, so the audit trail for an AI estate is a by-product of the scan. 42Crunch computes compliance posture control by control on every audit and every scan, not assembled from documents afterward. Each audit and scan checks a server against all applicable frameworks at the same time.[4][5][11]

A server below the threshold does not reach production.[12]

42Crunch is built for enterprise security and platform teams governing MCP servers, APIs and AI agent security at scale. 42Crunch pairs API Audit, Scan and Protection with MCP Contract, Audit, Scan and Protect on one platform, with one set of SQG policies and one CI/CD pattern. Pricing includes a dedicated encrypted tenant, SSO and a dedicated support manager, sized to the number of APIs, MCP servers and users. Individual developers who use the 42Crunch AI coding agent plugins have a self-serve pricing option.[2][3][4][5][6][7][10][12]

42Crunch on the record

Sources

42Crunch full record

  1. [1]42crunch criticalblue announce partnership42Crunch · 42crunch.com · published November 21, 2018 · Tier A
  2. [2]42crunch.com42Crunch · 42crunch.com · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  3. [3]42crunch publishes state of api security 202642Crunch · 42crunch.com · published February 11, 2026 · Tier A
  4. [4]42Crunch — AI Security Platform for MCP42Crunch · undated page, accessed October 23, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]AI Regulatory Compliance | 42Crunch42Crunch · undated page, accessed October 23, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]Management der MCP-Server-Sicherheitslage | 42Crunch42Crunch · undated page, accessed October 23, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]About 42Crunch42Crunch · undated page, accessed October 23, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]42Crunch Launches MCP Security Governance, Giving Enterprises Detailed AI Exposure Management and Compliance with AI Regulatory Frameworks42Crunch · published September 23, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]42Crunch Launches API Contract Generator in Developer IDEs42Crunch · published January 19, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]Pricing | 42Crunch42Crunch · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]KI-Regulierungskonformität | 42Crunch42Crunch · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  12. [12]Management der MCP-Server-Sicherheitslage | 42Crunch42Crunch · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A

StackHawk full record

  1. [1]stackhawk.comStackHawk · stackhawk.com · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]Stackhawk launches sensitive data identification to help security teams protect high risk apis 302476776StackHawk via PR Newswire · prnewswire.com · published June 12, 2025 · Tier A
  3. [3]AI Coding Agent Security Platform | StackHawk, Inc.StackHawk · undated page, accessed October 28, 2026 · Tier A
  4. [4]AI Coding Agent Security for Modern Security Teams | StackHawk, Inc.StackHawk · undated page, accessed October 28, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]API Security Testing Trusted by HealthTechStackHawk · undated page, accessed October 28, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]API Security that keeps pace with FinTech InnovationStackHawk · undated page, accessed October 28, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]Getting Started | Delivering Secure Applications, SimplifiedStackHawk · undated page, accessed October 28, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]OWASP Top 10 Solution Page with StackHawk InsightsStackHawk · undated page, accessed October 28, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]StackHawk: Your AppSec Intelligence PlatformStackHawk · undated page, accessed October 28, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]Secure Vibe Coding with StackHawkStackHawk · undated page, accessed October 28, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]Runtime Application Business Logic Testing for API-Driven AppsStackHawk · undated page, accessed October 28, 2026 · Tier A
  12. [12]StackHawk and Wiz: One Risk Picture Across the Application and Cloud LayerStackHawk · published April 30, 2026 · Tier A
  13. [13]StackHawk + Endor Labs: Correlating and Prioritizing SAST and DAST FindingsStackHawk · published November 20, 2025 · Tier A
  14. [14]Introducing Intelligent Business Logic Testing: Find Authorization Flaws Pre-ProductionStackHawk · published December 16, 2025 · Tier A
  15. [15]About StackHawk | Security Feedback for Coding AgentsStackHawk · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  16. [16]Pricing for StackHawk's AI Coding Agent Security PlatformStackHawk · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  17. [17]Modern DAST | StackHawk Dynamic Application Security TestingStackHawk · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  18. [18]The Developer-First Alternative to Bright SecurityStackHawk · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A

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