SSL Labs is the reference implementation
Let's be clear: SSL Labs is the best SSL/TLS scanner ever built. Ivan Ristić built it in 2009 and it became the de facto industry standard. When security professionals talk about "getting an A+ on SSL Labs," that's what they mean. Qualys maintains it as a free public service, and it's used by billions of scans per year.
Their engine tests every cipher suite, every protocol version, every TLS extension, and every known vulnerability. It's meticulous. It produces an unambiguous A+ to F grade that everyone understands.
What ismycodesafe.com does with SSL
We use SSLyze, an open-source SSL scanner that implements many of the same checks as SSL Labs. SSLyze is what testssl.sh and many other tools are built on. It handles:
- SSL 2.0 through TLS 1.3 protocol detection
- Cipher suite enumeration per protocol
- Heartbleed vulnerability detection (CVE-2014-0160)
- CRIME attack detection (TLS compression check)
- Certificate chain and OCSP stapling validation
- Hostname matching
For most use cases, our SSL analysis will find the same issues SSL Labs finds. For advanced TLS debugging, SSL Labs has more edge cases covered.
Why one tool isn't enough
SSL Labs gives you an exhaustive SSL report. But SSL is only one layer of your attack surface. A site can get an A+ on SSL Labs and still be trivially hackable due to:
- Missing security headers — CSP, HSTS, X-Frame-Options
- Exposed .env files — credentials, API keys, database passwords
- Vulnerable dependencies — outdated jQuery, Lodash, Bootstrap with known CVEs
- CORS misconfigurations — allowing any origin with credentials
- Exposed admin panels — /wp-admin, /phpMyAdmin, /actuator/env
- Subdomain takeover risks — dangling DNS records pointing to unclaimed services
None of these show up in an SSL Labs scan. That's not a flaw in SSL Labs — it's just not what the tool is designed to do.
ismycodesafe.com as a one-stop scan
We built ismycodesafe.com to answer "is my site safe?" with one scan. That means bundling SSL analysis with everything else. In 30 seconds you get:
- SSL/TLS analysis (via SSLyze)
- 8 HTTP security headers checked
- 53 sensitive file paths probed
- Tech stack + CVE detection
- JavaScript library vulnerability check
- OWASP Top 10 mapping with A-F grade
- Threat intelligence from 5 databases
- Subdomain discovery
- DNS security audit
Use both if you want the best of both worlds
Run ismycodesafe.com for weekly security checks across your full attack surface. Run SSL Labs when you're specifically tuning SSL/TLS for maximum grade or debugging handshake issues.
Both are free. They're complementary tools, not replacements.
API access
SSL Labs offers a public API with rate limits. ismycodesafe.com doesn't have a public API yet — it's on the roadmap for enterprise customers.
The honest summary
SSL Labs: The best SSL/TLS scanner. Period. If SSL is all you care about, use it.
ismycodesafe.com: SSL analysis plus 150+ other security checks in a single scan. Use it if you want a comprehensive security audit.