What is a website vulnerability scanner

A website vulnerability scanner is an automated software designed to search for security vulnerabilities in a website. It scans for web vulnerabilities within web services, web servers, proxy servers, or web application servers. 

Website vulnerability scanners are dynamic and language-independent. 

They work against a known list of common exploits as maintained by OWASP and others. 

Vulnerability scanners either rely on a database of known vulnerabilities or probe for common flaw types to discover unknown vulnerabilities.

A list of common vulnerability scanners is maintained by OWASP. Contynuiti's complimentary website vulnerability scanner is an essential tool to get a baseline assessment.