Freemium User FAQ
Helping you fix Your APIs today and prevent API breaches tomorrow

This FAQ addresses the most commonly asked questions by freemium users of our API Security Testing services. If you don’t find the answer to your questions below, please log a ticket on our support desk and we’ll do our best to answer your question.

We have broken the questions into 4 groups

  1. Freemium User FAQs
  2. Free API Security Testing FAQs
  3. Additional FAQs
  4. Subscription Upgrade FAQs

Freemium FAQs

Freemium allows users to use our api security testing solutions for free with limited monthly usage once it is for non commercial / non production use.

Both our API Audit and API Scan services are available for free, with usage restrictions, in your IDE and CI/CD pipelines. The freemium version is designed solely for non-production use. You get 25 complete security audits and scans per month in CI/CD and IDE. You also get 100 API operation audits and scans per month in the IDE only. 

We provide FAQs and self-serve tutorial “how to” videos here. You can also register your query in our support section and we will do our best to respond within a reasonable time.

On the free service you cannot collaborate with other users working on the same API, this is available only to paid subscribers.

You have a few options:

  • Upgrade your account with 42Crunch (see upgrade section below)
  • Conduct a full enterprise trial  - time limited.
  • Contact us to learn more about our API Security testing and API Runtime protection services. 
  • Continue as you are, but wait until the end of the time period for the free 30 day allowance to restart.

API Security Testing FAQs

Below are questions specifically related to using our API Security Tools as a freemium user.

API Security Audit is a 42Crunch static API testing service that helps users find and fix issues with their OpenAPI contracts during the design time and avoid releasing unprotected APIs.

The API Security Audit performs over 300+ checks on the OpenAPI Contract checking for adherence to the OpenAPI specification, data definition quality (how well your schema is defined) and potential security vulnerabilities.

API Audit is available from a number of IDE marketplaces (via the openAPI Editor) and CI/CD platforms (as a plugin).  It is available either for free with limited usage or on the 42Crunch platform as a paid subscription.

There is an option to run the audit from the 42Crunch OpenAPI editor in VS Code, IntelliJ and Eclipse. 

First you need to activate the service. Here is a short video to explain.

Once the Audit service is active you can take a look at a tutorial video on how to run the API Security Audit.

There is an option to run the audit for freemium users from GitHub Actions. We will be expanding to Azure DevOps and other CI/CD platforms in the coming months. 

Please take a look at a tutorial video on how to run the API Security Audit & API Scan for freemium users from GitHub.

API Scan is a dynamic API Security Testing tool for REST API. This means that API Scan sends real API traffic to your API and examines and validates the responses.

The tests are automatically created by using the APIs' OpenAPI Definition file (OpenAPI Contract) to test the following:

  1. Does the API conform to the API Design i.e. does it do what it is supposed  to do according to the design
  2. Does it perform as it is supposed to - does it only allow the expected traffic and reject not expected traffic.
  3. Are there any security weakness based on how the API is implemented.

Here is an explainer video

API Scan is available in IDEs (via the openAPI Editor) and the GitHub Actions CI/CD.  It is available for free with limited usage and non commercial basis (see Freemium FAQ section above).

You can also run API Scan on the 42Crunch platform. This is available only to paid subscribers.


There is an option to run the API Scan for freemium users from the IDEs We will be expanding to IntelliJ and Eclipse in the coming months. 

We are currently working on the tutorial video on this and will share shortly.

There is an option to run the API Scan for freemium users from GitHub Actions. We will be expanding to Azure DevOps and other CI/CD platforms in the coming months. 

Please take a look at a tutorial video on how to run the API Security Audit & API Scan for freemium users from GitHub.

API Security Testing with 42Crunch combines a number of our tools and integrates in the development lifecycle of the API as follows:

  1. API Design - we help developers create and edit OpenAPI files using our Free OpenAPI editor tool in their favorite IDEs
  2. API Audit - checks the API Design file for different structure, semantic and security flaws, marks the API Design file out of a score of 100 and also offers remediation advice and quick ways to fix the issues identified. This way you can quickly fix and create a robust OpenAPI contract. (more info above)
  3. API Scan - checks the actual API for security flaws by sending dynamic traffic to it. The tests we do are based on the API design file of the same API. More Above

Now we also add in some additional things like data dictionaries to help standardize definitions used across all APIs, security quality gates that can prevent changes to APIs going into production without first having passed an approved score in both the API Audit and API Scan checks and finally we give all of this visibility to security teams which enables security teams and development teams work together with agreed security policies in a faster and more secure development process.

There are multiple benefits to upgrading to a paid subscription (see section below) but if you are unsure then please request an introductory call with one of our pre-sales engineers who an run discuss your requirements with you.

We have put together this video to help you use our API Security Testing Tools from GitHub Actions as a Free User

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One of the best API security testing and assessment tools. It makes it easy for developers to build APIs due to its feature of testing the API against 300+ vulnerabilities in data whether it be at rest or transit.

Additional FAQs

Below are some additional questions we get asked a lot. Let us know if you have any other questions

Currently we support VSCode from Microsoft for freemium.  IntelliJ from Jenkins and Eclipse will follow. All three integrate with our API Security platform and paid subscriptions.

Currently 42Crunch offers a freemium solution on CI/CD for GitHub Actions currently. We will be adding Azure DevOps soon.

For paid customers we offer integrations with Bitbucket, Azure Pipelines, Bamboo, Jenkins, Gitlab, GitHub Actions and Sonarqube.

 

Essentially the API audit on IDE and CI/CD are the same so when you run an audit in IDE or CI/CD both run the same checks on the OpenAPI contract. There are some differences however between IDE and CI/CD functionality as these platforms are different. In the IDE for example you can edit the OpenAPI contract while in the CI/CD you cannot. This is why you get extra allowance to run 100 operation audits in the IDE. You can also view the Audit and Scan reports in the IDE whereas you cannot see the full report on the CI/CD pipeline. We can push the results into GitHub Codespaces for CI/CD though.

The Data Dictionary capability helps organizations define a dictionary of formats that should be used in APIs.

By harmonizing what formats your APIs can accept you can increase their security as the stricter data definition quality for input and output data narrows down the attack surface.

For developers, this means that they do not have to reinvent the wheel but can check the data dictionaries for formats already in use and use the existing ones.

Here is an explainer video

The freemium edition comes with a default data dictionary that can be used at IDE level, it is not obligatory but we recommend using it.

With the paid subscription multiple data dictionaries can be created and customised to meet your organization’s specific needs.

Security quality gates help implement security compliance and governance across the enterprise. 

Security Quality Gates (SQGs) can highlight or prevent APIs or changes to APIs from being committed via CI/CD pipelines without first having passed an approved threshold. SQGs apply both to API Audit and API Scan static and dynamic reports.

In IDE SQGs will highlight to the developer if the score on either the API Audit or API Scan reports is not sufficient to pass the required standard. 

In CI/CD there is an option to either enforce the SQG or just report on the SQG. 

For freemium users a standard SQG is available. For paid subscriptions you can customise the SQGs.

This video will explain Security Quality Gates

In the IDE, you are able to see the security quality gates status. This means developers can determine whether they would pass the SQG threshold.

In the CICD pipeline, SQGs enforcement can be turned on or off.

 

Subscription Upgrade FAQs

Below are some frequently asked questions in relation to how and why to upgrade your subscription.

Yes. You can upgrade to a paid solution offering either on a monthly or annual subscription level. See Pricing 

If you want to only purchase for one or two months then you will need to cancel your monthly subscription when you no longer need it any more.

If you want to collaborate as part of a team, or increase the volume of audits and scans as you get closer to production, then you should consider upgrading to a paid subscription model to get unlimited usage.

You also can avail of other features such as customized Security Quality Gates and Data Dictionaries.

Yes. We offer a sliding scale of prices from a base entry level price for up to 5 users all the way to 25 users as part of our Teams pricing.

IIf you have any special requests please contact us

42Crunch offers both Standard and Premium Support and Maintenance services for the 42Crunch Platform.

The services delivered are subject to the Master Customer Agreement entered into between a paying Customer and 42Crunch.

For further information about our support levels please contact us.

Yes. We offer a full enterprise free trial, with unlimited usage and functionality for a limited timeframe. 

42Crunch API Security Platform

The 42Crunch API Security platform proactively tests, fixes and protects APIs from development to runtime. It offers a range of services in addition to the security testing capabilities API Audit and Scan outlined above. These additional services are:

API Capture - Available extra to paid subscribers only

Don't want to build OpenAPI contracts from scratch or have lots of APIs without OpenAPI design files?  Well API Capture can use traffic data, postman collections, API test configurations and even half built OpenAPI files to automatically build OpenAPI contract saving your developers lots of time and effort. It will also save your front end, backend teams and testing teams time as they now have a design file to work off.

Here is a video explainer

API Protect - Available extra to paid subscribers only

API Protect is an API micro-firewall that enforces the API security policy at runtime. It creates an allowlist of valid operations from the APIs OpenAPI contract and enforces the contract on all incoming and outgoing operations. The micro-firewall will automatically change when any changes are made to the OpenAPI contract.

Here is a video explainer

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Developer-first solution for delivering API security as code.