42Crunch

Developer-first API security platform with audit, scan, and runtime protection guardrails

Cybersecurity API Development 42crunch.com

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Founded

2016

Starting Price

About 42Crunch

42Crunch is an API security platform that takes a developer-first approach to securing APIs across the full lifecycle. It statically audits OpenAPI/Swagger contracts with 300+ security checks, dynamically scans live APIs for vulnerabilities, and enforces security quality gates in IDEs and CI/CD pipelines. The platform now extends to agentic AI workflows, adding a Secure MCP Server and guardrails that control how AI coding agents and AI agents interact with enterprise APIs, plus contract-based runtime protection via an API micro-firewall.

Pros & Cons

Pros

Shift-left approach puts security testing directly in the IDE where developers fix issues before code review
Contract-based audit runs 300+ structured checks on OpenAPI specs, bringing consistency to API security reviews
Covers the full API lifecycle in one platform: design-time audit, build-time scanning, and runtime protection
Free IDE extensions and a genuinely low individual entry price ($9/mo) are rare in the API security space
Early mover on AI agent security with Secure MCP Server and guardrails for coding agents like Copilot and Claude Code
Deployed by Fortune 500 firms and used by over 1 million developers via IDE extensions

Cons

Entirely dependent on accurate, complete OpenAPI specs — incomplete or drifted contracts weaken audits, scans, and runtime protection
Initial pipeline integration and setup can be time-consuming, especially for APIs that don't follow standard OpenAPI patterns
Alert volume can be high, making it hard to prioritize the most critical issues
Runtime protection, MCP security, and gateway/SIEM integrations are locked behind the custom-priced Enterprise tier
Token-based metering on individual plans makes heavy-usage costs less predictable

Key Features

API Security Audit (SAST)

Runs 300+ static security checks against OpenAPI/Swagger contracts, scoring structure, security definitions, and input/output data validation from 0-100

API Vulnerability Scan (DAST)

Dynamic scanner that uses the API contract to test live APIs for authentication, authorization, and improper input validation issues

IDE Integration

Free OpenAPI editor extensions for VS Code, JetBrains, and Eclipse let developers audit and fix API contracts without leaving their editor

AI Coding Agent Guardrails

Integrates with coding agents like GitHub Copilot and Claude Code to add security guardrails and audit-to-AI remediation loops in agentic DevSecOps workflows

Security Quality Gates

Enforces customizable security policies in CI/CD pipelines so vulnerable APIs never reach production

API Runtime Protection

Contract-based API micro-firewall that validates every request against the OpenAPI specification and blocks malicious traffic at runtime

Secure MCP Server

Policy-driven MCP abstraction layer that validates inputs and controls AI agent interaction with enterprise APIs

API Security Governance

Shared workspaces, customizable data dictionaries, API drift scanning, and centralized policy management for teams

Enterprise Integrations

CI/CD, API gateway, SIEM/SOC, and SSO plus audit log integrations on the enterprise tier

Pricing

Starter

$0/14 days

Full access free trial, no credit card
Single user
Coding agents (Claude Code, Copilot)
API SAST & DAST
API vulnerability and identity scan
Default security quality gate
IDE integration
Community support

Individual

$9/month

1,000 security tokens/month (+$0.009 per extra token)
Single user
Coding agents (Claude Code, Copilot)
API SAST & DAST
API vulnerability and identity scan
Default security quality gate
IDE integration
Email support

Individual Pro

$20/month

3,000 security tokens/month (+$0.007 per extra token)
Single user
Coding agents (Claude Code, Copilot)
API SAST & DAST
API vulnerability and identity scan
Default security quality gate
IDE integration
Email support

Team 10

$349/month

Up to 10 users and 250 endpoints
Unlimited tokens ($3,560 billed annually)
All Individual Pro features
SaaS platform team account
Shared API workspace
API drift scan
Customizable data dictionaries and quality gates
42Crunch Teams support

Team 25

$599/month

11-25 users and up to 1,000 endpoints
Unlimited tokens ($6,000 billed annually)
All Individual Pro features
SaaS platform team account
Shared API workspace
API drift scan
Customizable data dictionaries and quality gates
42Crunch Teams support

Enterprise

Custom

Unlimited tokens with volume discount
All Teams features
API runtime threat protection
Secure MCP Server and AI-to-API security guardrails
Dedicated encrypted tenant
CI/CD, API gateway, SIEM/SOC integrations
SSO + audit log integrations
Dedicated customer support manager
Enterprise POC trial

Best For

Shift-left API security in development

Developers audit and fix OpenAPI contracts inside VS Code, JetBrains, or Eclipse before code ever reaches a pipeline, catching authentication and data validation flaws at design time.

CI/CD security quality gates

AppSec teams enforce customizable security policies in build pipelines so APIs that fail audit or scan thresholds are blocked from deploying to production.

Securing AI agent access to APIs

Enterprises expose existing business APIs to AI agents through a policy-driven Secure MCP Server that validates every request, blocks AI-to-API threats, and keeps an auditable execution trail.

Runtime API threat protection

A micro-firewall generated from the API contract validates requests and responses in production, blocking injection attacks and malformed traffic without behavioral learning periods.