Checkmarx One vs SonarQube comparison

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35,279 views|23,132 comparisons
86% willing to recommend
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54,985 views|43,627 comparisons
80% willing to recommend
Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary
Updated on Sep 14, 2023

We performed a comparison between SonarQube and Checkmarx based on our users’ reviews in four categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.

  • Ease of Deployment: SonarQube's setup is generally considered straightforward, with users finding it simple and quick. Some users said that Checkmarx is easy to set up, while others faced difficulties. Proper documentation and a dedicated team helped make the process smoother.   
  • Features: Most SonarQube reviewers mentioned how easy it is to integrate with other products. Checkmarx reviewers noted the benefits of the solution’s application security, scanning, and tracking.
  • Room for Improvement: SonarQube should enhance management reports, improve the scanning process, and expand language support. Checkmarx has room to improve in terms of its REST APIs, vulnerability scanning accuracy, and integration with third-party software. 
  • Pricing: Most SonarQube reviewers feel satisfied with the pricing, especially with its free Community Edition. .Checkmarx reviewers say it is expensive.
  • Service and Support: Some reviewers of SonarQube feel that support leaves room for improvement. Most reviewers of Checkmarx are satisfied with the support levels but would like faster response times. 

Comparison Results: Both solutions have intuitive interfaces and are easy to use. However, Checkmarx offers a more comprehensive feature set, including software composition scanning and a higher number of vulnerabilities detected. Checkmarx also provides better language support and more advanced reporting capabilities. SonarQube has a simpler pricing model and is generally considered more affordable. SonarQube focuses strongly on code quality and offers better integration with DevOps pipelines. The customer service and support experiences for both products vary, with some users praising the support and others reporting negative experiences.

To learn more, read our detailed Checkmarx One vs. SonarQube Report (Updated: March 2024).
768,857 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Q&A Highlights
Question: Checkmarx vs SonarQube; SonarQube interoperability with Checkmarx or Veracode
Answer: My opinions are my own and do not represent any other entities that I may be or have been affiliated with.  On this topic I think it is important to acknowledge that no matter which solution you go for you will have false positives. I don't think there will be any solution that properly solves this anytime soon.  As for Checkmarx vs SonarQube...  Checkmarx may cover more rules over a wider landscape, however I personally found this extra breadth covered outlyer rules and mostly lower priority issues. Both Checkmarx and SonarQube cover the OWASP top 10 and Sans25. Both tools can be tuned to help reduce false positives, for both you will need to analyse your tuning to ensure you are not introducing false negatives. Any tools that provide you customisation come with the risk that you could make things worse.  SonarQube has very good integration into most development IDEs empowering the engineers to run scans against the company rules on their local machine before submitting your source control and further tooling. In some it will even check the code automatically while you type it.  I see you also included Veracode in here. In my opinion that is a far superior tool to Checkmarx, this is down to their more modern approach to this problem. They also allow local developer integration to self lint code before submission.  In a perfect world, I would use Sonar for development bugs, test coverage and technical debt measurements. Then veracode to handle the SAST side for me. In short I would not duplicate the security scans in Sonar and Veracode.  Hope that helps
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"Checkmarx has helped us deliver more secure products. We are able to do static code analysis with the tool before shipping our code to production. When the integration is in the pipeline, this tool gives us early notifications on code fixes.""The most valuable feature is the application tracking reporting.""The value you can get out of the speedy production may be worth the price tag.""We use the solution for dynamic application testing.""The UI is very intuitive and simple to use.""The most valuable features of Checkmarx are the automation and information that it provides in the reports.""The most valuable features of Checkmarx are the Best Fix Location and the Payments option because you can save a lot of time trying to mitigate the configuration. Using these tools can save you a lot of time.""The setup is very easy. There is a lot of information in the documents which makes the install not difficult at all."

More Checkmarx One Pros →

"The most valuable features are code scanning and Quality Gates.""The most valuable features are that it is user-friendly, easy to access, and they provide good training files.""SonarQube is good in terms of code review and to report on basic vulnerabilities in your applications.""We can create a Quality Gate in order to fail Jenkins jobs where the code coverage is lower than the set percentage.""It provides the security that is required from a solution for financial businesses.""This solution has helped with the integration and building of our CICD pipeline.""If code coverage is a low number then that's of great value to me.""The solution has a wide variety of features and an open-source community that you are able to learn Java, JavaScript, or any other programing language."

More SonarQube Pros →

Cons
"Checkmarx could improve the speed of the scans.""We are trying to find out if there is a way to identify the run-time null values. I am analyzing different tools to check if there is any tool that supports run-time null value identification, but I don't think any of the tools in the market currently supports this feature. It would be helpful if Checkmarx can identify and throw an exception for a null value at the run time. It would make things a lot easier if there is a way for Checkmarx to identify nullable fields or hard-coded values in the code. The accessibility for customized Checkmarx rules is currently limited and should be improved. In addition, it would be great if Checkmarx can do static code and dynamic code validation. It does a lot of security-related scanning, and it should also do static code and dynamic code validation. Currently, for security-related validation, we are using Checkmarx, and for static code and dynamic code validation, we are using some other tools. We are spending money on different tools. We can pay a little extra money and use Checkmarx for everything.""I would like to see the DAST solution in the future.""I think the CxAudit tool has room for improvement. At the beginning you can choose a scan of a project, but in any event the project must be scanned again (wasting time).""The tool is currently quite static in terms of finding security vulnerabilities. It would be great if it was more dynamic and we had even more tools at our disposal to keep us safe. It would help if there was more scanning or if the process was more automated.""Checkmarx being Windows only is a hindrance. Another problem is: why can't I choose PostgreSQL?""They could work to improve the user interface. Right now, it really is lacking.""We want to have a holistic view of the portfolio-level dashboard and not just an individual technical project level."

More Checkmarx One Cons →

"A robust credential scanner would be a huge bonus as it would remove the need for yet another niche product.""The learning curve can be fairly steep at first, but then, it's not an entry-level type of application. It's not like an introduction to C programming. You should know not just C programming and how to make projects but also how to apply its findings to the bigger picture. I've had users who said that they wish it was easier to understand how to configure, but I don't know if that's doable because what it's doing is a very complicated thing. I don't know if it is possible to make a complicated thing trivially simple.""This solution finds issues that are similar to what is found by Checkmarx, and it would be nice if the overlap could be eliminated.""The scanning part could be improved in SonarQube. We have used Coverity for scanning, and we have the critical issues reported by Coverity. When we used SonarQube for scanning and looked at the results, it seems that some of them have incorrect input. This part can be improved for C and C++ languages.""The security in SonarQube could be better.""The exporting capabilities could be improved. Currently, exporting is fully dependent on the SonarQube environment.""Expression of common vulnerabilities and exposures is not always current.""I don't believe you can have metrics of code quality based upon code analysis. I don't think it's possible for a computer to do it."

More SonarQube Cons →

Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "It is the right price for quality delivery."
  • "I believe pricing is better compared to other commercial tools."
  • "The pricing was not very good. This is just a framework which shouldn’t cost so much."
  • "The pricing is competitive and provides a lower TCO (total cost of ownership) for achieving application security."
  • "It is a good product but a little overpriced."
  • "The license has a vague language around P1 issues and the associated support. Make sure to review these in order to align them with your organizational policies."
  • "​Checkmarx is not a cheap scanning tool, but none of the security tools are cheap. Checkmarx is a powerful scanning tool, and it’s essential to have one of these products."
  • "We got a special offer for a 30% reduction for three years, after our first year. I think for a real source-code scanning tool, you have to add a lot of money for Open Source Analysis, and AppSec Coach (160 Euro per user per year)."
  • More Checkmarx One Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "This is open source."
  • "We did not purchase a license (required for C++ support), but this option was considered."
  • "Get the paid version which allows the customized dashboard and provides technical support."
  • "People can try the free licenses and later can seek buying plugins/support, etc. once they started liking it."
  • "This product is open source and very convenient."
  • "The licence is standard open source licensing"
  • "The price point on SonarQube is good."
  • "Some of the plugins that were previously free are not free now."
  • More SonarQube Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Answers from the Community
    William Hayes
    Swapna Ragi - PeerSpot reviewerSwapna Ragi
    Real User

    SonarQube depends on completely what you configure the Rules. You will have the option of the Profile creation and can be assigned to the Projects. If you configure the project --> under them services configuration it is good to go. Proper configuration is important in the Sonat Qube. Yes, Sonarqube allows developers to delint their code before SAST.


    Veracode recently introduced it. But this integration at developer Machine integration available for only JAVA coded Projets.


    About the Vulnerability coverage, both are the same. OWASP TOP 10 is equal to Sans 25. sans25 is categorized with one category number and describes under that subsection. Refer to this.  https://www.templarbit.com/blog/2018/02/08/owasp-top-10-vs-sans-cwe-25/

    Durga Gudimetla - PeerSpot reviewerDurga Gudimetla
    Real User

    SonarQube can be used for SAST. However, based on our internal analysis, our team feel CheckMarx is better suited for Security compared to SonarQube. SoanrQube is used in day to day developer code scan and Checkmarx is used during code movement to staging or during release.

    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:I would like to recommend Checkmarx. With Checkmarx, you are able to have an all in one solution for SAST and SCA as well. Veracode is only a cloud solution. Hope this helps.
    Top Answer:Compared to the solutions we used previously, Checkmarx has reduced our workload by almost 75%.
    Top Answer:The solution's price is high and you pay based on the number of users.
    Top Answer:I am not very familiar with SonarQube and their solutions, so I can not answer But if you are asking me about which tools that are the best for for Static Code Analysis, I suggest you have  a look… more »
    Top Answer:SonarQube is easy to deploy and configure, and also integrates well with other tools to do quality code analysis. SonarQube has a great community edition, which is open-source and free. Easy to use… more »
    Top Answer:We researched Coverity, but in the end, we chose SonarQube. SonarQube is a tool for reviewing code quality and security. It helps to guide our development teams during code reviews by providing… more »
    Ranking
    Views
    35,279
    Comparisons
    23,132
    Reviews
    21
    Average Words per Review
    513
    Rating
    7.7
    Views
    54,985
    Comparisons
    43,627
    Reviews
    19
    Average Words per Review
    391
    Rating
    8.0
    Comparisons
    Veracode logo
    Compared 13% of the time.
    Fortify on Demand logo
    Compared 6% of the time.
    Snyk logo
    Compared 4% of the time.
    Coverity logo
    Compared 3% of the time.
    Mend.io logo
    Compared 3% of the time.
    SonarCloud logo
    Compared 13% of the time.
    Coverity logo
    Compared 11% of the time.
    Veracode logo
    Compared 10% of the time.
    Snyk logo
    Compared 7% of the time.
    Sonatype Lifecycle logo
    Compared 5% of the time.
    Also Known As
    Sonar
    Learn More
    Interactive Demo
    Checkmarx
    Demo Not Available
    Overview

    Checkmarx is a highly accurate and flexible static code analysis product that allows organizations to automatically scan uncompiled code and identify hundreds of security vulnerabilities in all major coding languages and software frameworks. Checkmarx is available as a standalone product and can be effectively integrated into the software development lifecycle (SDLC) to streamline vulnerability detection and remediation. Checkmarx is trusted by leading organizations such as SAP, Samsung, and Salesforce.com.

    Checkmarx is a global leader in software security solutions for modern software development. Checkmarx delivers a comprehensive software security platform that unites with DevOps by scanning uncompiled source code for security vulnerabilities early in the development life cycle to reduce and remediate risk from software vulnerabilities. Using Checkmarx, teams avoid software security vulnerabilities managed via a single and unified dashboard without slowing down their delivery schedule.

    Checkmarx balances the needs of the entire organization, delivering seamless security from the start and throughout the entire software development life cycle. Checkmarx can be deployed on-premises in a private data center or hosted via a public cloud.

    Checkmarx Features

    Some of Checkmarx’s features include:

    • Source code scanning: Detect and repair more vulnerabilities before you release your code.

    • Open-source scanning: Find and eliminate the risks in your open-source code.

    • Interactive code scanning: Scan for vulnerabilities and runtime threats.

    • Open-source security for infrastructure as code: Identify and fix insecure IaC configurations that put your application at risk.

    Reviews from Real Users

    Checkmarx stands out among its competitors for a number of reasons. Two major ones are its ability to enable developers to secure their code with a single management dashboard and its high-speed scanning abilities.

    PeerSpot users note the effectiveness of these features. A CEO at a tech services company writes, “The most valuable features are the easy-to-understand interface, and it’s very user-friendly. We spend some time tuning to start scanning a new project, which is only a few clicks. A few simple tunes for custom rules and we can start our scan. We can do the work quickly and we don't need to compile the source code because Checkmarx does the work without compiling the project. The scanning is very quick. It's about 20,000 lines per hour, which is a good speed for scanning.”

    A director at a tech services company notes, “The features and technologies are very good. The flexibility and the roadmap have also been very good. They're at the forefront of delivering the additional capabilities that are required with cloud delivery, etc. Their ability to deliver what customers require and when they require is very important.”

    A senior manager at a manufacturing company writes, “The identification of verification-related security vulnerabilities is really important and one of the key things. It also identifies vulnerabilities for any kind of third-party tool coming into the system or any third-party tools that you are using, which is very useful for avoiding random hacking."

    SonarQube is a self-managed open-source platform that helps developers create code devoid of quality and vulnerability issues. By integrating seamlessly with the top DevOps platforms in the Continuous Integration (CI) pipeline, SonarQube continuously inspects projects across multiple programming languages, providing immediate status feedback while coding. SonarQube’s quality gates become part of your release pipeline, displaying pass/fail results for new code based on quality profiles you customize to your company standards. Following Sonar’s Clean as You Code methodology guarantees that only software of the highest quality makes it to production.

    At its core, SonarQube includes a static code analyzer that identifies bugs, security vulnerabilities, hidden secrets, and code smells. The platform guides you through issue resolution, fostering a culture of continuous improvement. SonarQube’s comprehensive reporting is a valuable tool for dev teams to monitor their codebase's overall health and quality across multiple projects in their portfolio. With SonarQube, you can achieve a state of Clean Code, leading to secure, reliable, and maintainable software.

    Sonar is the only solution combining the power of industry-leading software quality analysis with static application security testing (SAST) and real-time coding guidance in the IDE (with SonarLint) to meet the DevOps and DevSecOps demand of putting agility, automation, and security in the hands of developers. Further accelerate DevOps continuous integration by helping developers find and fix issues in code before the software testing stage, reducing the churn of finding, fixing, rebuilding, and retesting your app.

    With over 5,000 Clean Code rules, SonarQube analyzes 30+ of the most popular programming languages, including dozens of frameworks, the top DevOps platforms (GitLab, GitHub, Azure DevOps, and Bitbucket, and more), and the leading infrastructure as code (IaC) platforms.

    SonarQube is the most trusted static code analyzer used by over 7 million developers and 400,000 organizations globally to clean over half a trillion lines of code.

    Sample Customers
    YIT, Salesforce, Coca-Cola, SAP, U.S. Army, Liveperson, Playtech Case Study: Liveperson Implements Innovative Secure SDLC
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company31%
    Financial Services Firm19%
    Comms Service Provider9%
    Manufacturing Company9%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Financial Services Firm21%
    Computer Software Company15%
    Manufacturing Company9%
    Insurance Company5%
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company30%
    Financial Services Firm21%
    Comms Service Provider7%
    Manufacturing Company7%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Financial Services Firm17%
    Computer Software Company15%
    Manufacturing Company11%
    Government6%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business38%
    Midsize Enterprise13%
    Large Enterprise50%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business17%
    Midsize Enterprise11%
    Large Enterprise72%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business25%
    Midsize Enterprise16%
    Large Enterprise59%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business17%
    Midsize Enterprise13%
    Large Enterprise71%
    Buyer's Guide
    Checkmarx One vs. SonarQube
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about Checkmarx One vs. SonarQube and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
    768,857 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Checkmarx One is ranked 3rd in Application Security Tools with 67 reviews while SonarQube is ranked 1st in Application Security Tools with 108 reviews. Checkmarx One is rated 7.6, while SonarQube is rated 8.0. The top reviewer of Checkmarx One writes "The report function is a great, configurable asset but sometimes yields false positives". On the other hand, the top reviewer of SonarQube writes "Easy to integrate and has a plug-in that supports both C and C++ languages". Checkmarx One is most compared with Veracode, Fortify on Demand, Snyk, Coverity and Mend.io, whereas SonarQube is most compared with SonarCloud, Coverity, Veracode, Snyk and Sonatype Lifecycle. See our Checkmarx One vs. SonarQube report.

    See our list of best Application Security Tools vendors and best Application Security Testing (AST) vendors.

    We monitor all Application Security Tools reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.