Choosing Between SAST and DAST

The choice between SAST and DAST often represents a false dilemma—most organizations benefit from using both. However, resource constraints, development practices, and risk profiles might prioritize one approach initially. Understanding selection criteria helps organizations make informed decisions about where to begin and how to expand their application security testing.

Development methodology significantly influences tool selection. Organizations practicing shift-left security with strong DevOps cultures often start with SAST due to its early integration capabilities. Traditional waterfall development might favor DAST since testing occurs in distinct phases. Agile teams might implement both but rely more heavily on incremental SAST during sprints and comprehensive DAST during release preparation.

Application architecture also guides tool selection. Microservices architectures with numerous small services benefit from SAST's ability to analyze code without complex deployment orchestration. Monolithic applications might see better initial results from DAST due to the complexity of analyzing large, interconnected code bases. API-heavy architectures require specialized approaches from both tools.