I've been demonstrating web app security topics for the Intro to Security course at Brown University this semester. I've used Burp almost exclusively. I've even had the students use the free version of Burp for labs. I don't know that the functionality / price tradeoff would make sense for them even if they were full time freelancers: they use Repeater and Proxy more than any other tools.
That being said, any time someone complains about it being too expensive I point out that a single vulnerability found as part of a security bug bounty program (ie: Google, Facebook, Mozilla, etc) nets you more than the cost of a license.
I've been demonstrating web app security topics for the Intro to Security course at Brown University this semester. I've used Burp almost exclusively. I've even had the students use the free version of Burp for labs. I don't know that the functionality / price tradeoff would make sense for them even if they were full time freelancers: they use Repeater and Proxy more than any other tools.
That being said, any time someone complains about it being too expensive I point out that a single vulnerability found as part of a security bug bounty program (ie: Google, Facebook, Mozilla, etc) nets you more than the cost of a license.