Web App Scanning Billing
F5® Distributed Cloud Web App Scanning includes two services: Recon and Scan. Recon is our External Attack Surface Management offering, while Scan is our Dynamic Application Security Testing offering. Recon is a free service within Distributed Cloud Web App Scanning and is not priced per usage. Scan is a paid service, priced based on the number of apps scanned on a monthly basis.
In this article, we will explain how the billing works in the Scan service of Distributed Cloud Web App Scanning.
App Definition
The Scan service works with the concept of apps, and billing of the usage of the Scan service is based on the number of apps scanned in a given month. Thus, we recommend our article on how we define apps in Distributed Cloud Web App Scanning before continuing.
Usage
F5® Distributed Cloud Web App Scanning requires an active subscription of the F5® Distributed Cloud Cloud Services Base Package. The Base Package gives access to the testing of three apps per month using Distributed Cloud Web App Scanning at no additional cost.
You can set up as many apps as you would like in your Distributed Cloud Web App Scanning account. Only the apps you test in a given month will count towards your usage quota. As an example, if you have defined 10 apps in your account but only test three of them every month, you will not be charged any additional amount, as your usage fits into our complimentary tier. You will only be charged for apps tested in addition to the first three you tested in a given month.
We do not charge you for additional tests you may want to run on a given app that you have already tested within the same calendar month. Thus, if you have identified vulnerabilities found in a test you have run on your app and subsequently patched them, you can retest your app at no additional cost within the same month. You can even apply different Test Profiles to your subsequent tests of your app at no additional cost.
Billing Example
In the following example, we have set up 10 apps in our account. However, we will not test all of them every month. Depending on our business requirements, we may only test a subset of them in any given month. In the example, we will use the list price of 175 USD per app per month to calculate our total costs for a six-month period.
Apps Defined in Our Distributed Cloud Web App Scanning Account
The following table shows an overview of the apps we have set up in our example account.
App Name | URL | Months Tested |
---|---|---|
Customer Portal | https://portal.example.com | January (3 times), March (2 times), June (4 times) |
Marketing Website | https://marketing.example.com | February (2 times), May (3 times) |
Support Dashboard | https://support.example.com | January (1 time), April (2 times), June (3 times) |
Admin Console | https://admin.example.com | January (2 times), March (1 time), June (1 time) |
Payment Gateway | https://payment.example.com | February (4 times), June (3 times) |
Analytics Platform | https://analytics.example.com | March (3 times), May (2 times) |
Mobile App API | https://api.example.com | April (1 time), May (1 time), June (2 times) |
Blog Platform | https://blog.example.com | March (2 times), June (3 times) |
E-commerce Store | https://store.example.com | February (3 times), April (2 times) |
HR Portal | https://hr.example.com | January (2 times), March (1 time), May (1 time) |
Usage Table
The following table shows our usage of the Scan service in Distributed Cloud Web App Scanning over a six-month period.
Month | Apps Tested | Number of Apps Tested | Total Number of Tests | Total Price (USD) |
---|---|---|---|---|
January | Customer Portal, Support Dashboard, Admin Console, HR Portal | 4 | 8 | 175 |
February | Marketing Website, Payment Gateway, E-commerce Store | 3 | 9 | 0 |
March | Customer Portal, Admin Console, Analytics Platform, Blog Platform, HR Portal | 5 | 9 | 350 |
April | Support Dashboard, Mobile App API, E-commerce Store | 3 | 5 | 0 |
May | Marketing Website, Analytics Platform, Mobile App API, HR Portal | 4 | 7 | 175 |
June | Customer Portal, Support Dashboard, Admin Console, Payment Gateway, Mobile App API, Blog Platform | 6 | 13 | 525 |
Total | 25 | 51 | 1,225 |
Summary of Example
As you can see from the tables in the example above, we will only charge you for the months where you actively make use of the Scan service. Thus, you can safely configure all of the apps in your portfolio in Distributed Cloud Web App Scanning and not worry about being charged for having them set up without scanning them.
Moreover, there are no additional costs for storage or accessing tests you have conducted in previous months.
Checking Your Usage
You can always check your usage of the Scan service in Distributed Cloud Web App Scanning by logging into the Distributed Cloud Console, visiting the Web App Scanning service, and navigating to your usage overview.
If you have any questions about your usage or general questions about billing, please contact your Technical Account Manager.