StackHawk’s Prevention-First API Security Platform Recognized in 2025 GigaOm Radar Report

Independent analyst firm GigaOm released its 2025 API Security Radar Report, positioning StackHawk as a Challenger and Fast Mover and recognizing our prevention-first approach. As traditional API and application security tools struggle with AI-accelerated development, GigaOm validated what we’ve believed from day one: the future of API security starts where code lives, not just where attacks happen.

The API Security Market at an Inflection Point

APIs are the backbone of modern applications, but there’s a critical disconnect: AI tools are exponentially accelerating API development while security teams lack both the visibility across rapidly multiplying attack surfaces and the integration into development lifecycles to match that speed.

The numbers tell the story. With API-related incidents now among the leading causes of data breaches and the market growing 30%+ annually, this has evolved from a technical concern to a board-level priority. Yet traditional perimeter defenses and legacy DAST tools remain fundamentally inadequate for protecting the dynamic, distributed API ecosystems that power modern applications.

GigaOm Radar Report Evaluation Criteria: The New Standard for API Security

GigaOm’s evaluation framework assesses what’s truly “differentiating and critical in this sector,” evaluating vendors across three dimensions: 

1. Key Features that differentiate solutions (API protocol support, abuse detection, runtime protection) 
2. Emerging Features that assess capabilities expected to become mainstream within 12-18 months (explainable AI, agent resilience)
3. Business Criteria covering nonfunctional requirements like cost, performance, scalability, and ecosystem integration.

This framework reflects the new reality that API security decisions now happen at the C-suite level, with strategic implications for competitive advantage and regulatory compliance. Vendors are no longer evaluated on point-in-time scanning alone, but on their ability to deliver automated security that scales with modern development practices.

GigaOm evaluated 18 leading API security solutions against these rigorous criteria. In a market where most vendors cluster in traditional runtime protection approaches, StackHawk’s positioning in the Innovation quadrant reflects our fundamentally different approach to the problem.t-in-time scanning alone, but on their ability to deliver automated security that scales with modern development practices.

Why StackHawk Earned Fast Mover Recognition

Against these criteria, GigaOm recognized StackHawk as a Challenger and Fast Mover, noting we are “positioned in the Innovation half of the market, as evidenced by frequent feature releases and a rapidly evolving roadmap, including significant advancements in AI-driven discovery and integration capabilities over the past year.”

Our recognition centered on three key differentiators that traditional tools simply can’t match:

Prevention-First Approach

While many vendors focus on monitoring or stopping attacks in production, we prevent vulnerabilities from ever reaching production. As the report noted, StackHawk “integrates seamlessly into CI/CD pipelines, ensuring that security validation occurs early and frequently throughout the development lifecycle, which helps teams quickly identify and remediate vulnerabilities before they reach production.”

GigaOm underscored the shift-left value for reduced risk and reduced remediation costs, stating that “[e]mbedding API security testing into CI/CD pipelines ensures that vulnerabilities are caught early, reducing remediation costs and accelerating delivery.”

Source-Based API Discovery

Comprehensive security starts with visibility. While traditional API security tools rely on network traffic to discover APIs, we map directly from source code repositories. GigaOm recognized that this approach “provides a unique advantage for shift-left security” and “reveals shadow APIs, identifies sensitive data flows, and tracks development activity—ensuring no API goes untested in an AI-accelerated world.”

Our source-based discovery can be a great complement to a production-based protection approach, providing security teams with the visibility they need to understand their security posture across their entire API attack surface and properly allocate resources within their AppSec program to mitigate risk.

Developer-First Feedback Loops

At StackHawk, we’ve always focused on the developer experience. As acknowledged in the research, our “automated, developer-centric approach provides actionable, detailed results, including reproduction steps for developers to follow.”

By meeting developers where they work and delivering fixes in their language, StackHawk bridges the gap with AppSec.

Looking Ahead: What GigaOm Radar Recognition Means for Your Strategy

GigaOm’s analysis reveals a market shifting from production-only protection to proactive API security that starts where code lives. The pace at which engineering organizations are pushing code and the innovation that’s expected of them creates undeniable friction. Security can’t be an afterthought or a blocker. 

The report shows the market is “not yet settled: leadership is contested,” meaning buyers should “prioritize solutions that demonstrate both agility and a clear roadmap toward platformization and automation.”

Organizations that continue relying on reactive, point-in-time approaches will find themselves outpaced by competitors who’ve already made the shift to automated, prevention-first security.

Ready to see why GigaOm recognized StackHawk as a Fast Mover for 2025? Download the full API Security GigaOm Radar report to explore the complete analysis and discover how prevention-first API security can transform your development lifecycle.