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Black Duck SCA vs JFrog Xray comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 21, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
6.2
Black Duck improved efficiency by identifying vulnerabilities early, saving time, streamlining audits, reducing manual effort, and enhancing code security.
Sentiment score
3.5
JFrog Xray improved efficiency, security, and compliance, reduced downtime, and sped up release cycles with enhanced vulnerability detection and reporting.
If you're using it on critical external programs where there is regulatory compliance on ensuring that the source code is clean from open-source, there's substantial ROI.
IP Head at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
9.3
Black Duck SCA support is praised for features and training, but response times and complexity need improvement.
Sentiment score
4.0
JFrog Xray's customer service is generally well-received, with positive technical support, though not all users engage directly.
There are some pain points with the response time and first-level support quality.
Director at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
On a scale of 1 to 10, I would rate the technical support of JFrog Xray an eight because they are very knowledgeable.
DevSecOps Engineer at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
When we need clarifications, we contact our account manager, and they arrange demos.
Development Senior at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
8.0
Black Duck SCA is praised for scalability and integration, though licensing costs may limit some users' experience.
Sentiment score
6.8
JFrog Xray is scalable and suitable for multiple applications, despite PostgreSQL limitations and some performance challenges.
I would rate the scalability of Black Duck 8 or 9.
IP Head at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
According to my use case, it is highly scalable.
DevOps Engineer at Syvora
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.0
Black Duck SCA is stable and reliable, with minor browser-related delays and a stability rating of 7-10.
Sentiment score
7.6
JFrog Xray is praised for stability and security, compared favorably to competitors, with minor concerns about PostgreSQL support.
I use JFrog Xray primarily for security purposes, and I find it reliable.
DevOps Engineer at Syvora
We did experience crashes, downtimes, and performance issues with JFrog Xray.
DevSecOps Engineer at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
 

Room For Improvement

Black Duck SCA users seek better integration, faster scans, user-friendly features, enhanced security, improved documentation, and more flexible pricing.
Users demand better reporting, documentation, UI, site performance, API limits, custom reports, vulnerability management, and integration support.
It can improve on the security side of it, specifically vulnerabilities identification.
IP Head at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
There are areas for improvement such as false positives and the scanning of containers.
Director at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
Black Duck does not have the SBOM management part.
Director at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
When we have given a very long tag, it doesn't work as expected and requires excessive scrolling.
DevOps Engineer at Syvora
somehow you need to adapt your GitLab pipeline and turn them into JFrog pipeline, and this is something they don't really advertise at first—you're obliged to use the JFrog CLI.
DevSecOps Engineer at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
X-ray needs improvement in supporting more than one database, as it currently only supports PostgreSQL.
Development Senior at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
 

Setup Cost

Black Duck SCA pricing is flexible, ranging from $10,000 to $70,000, and suitable for large enterprises needing compliance.
JFrog Xray provides a free trial of 14 days.
DevOps Engineer at Syvora
The basic scanning capabilities come with Artifactory, however, curation requires additional licenses.
Development Senior at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
 

Valuable Features

Black Duck SCA excels in vulnerability scanning, license compliance, secure DevOps integration, and robust reporting, offering high reliability.
JFrog Xray offers deep scanning, seamless integration with Artifactory, robust vulnerabilities management, flexible deployment, and attractive pricing.
The most valuable feature of Black Duck is the composition analysis feature, which is effective for security risk management.
Director at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
Black Duck's ability to identify dependencies very accurately has been most valuable in identifying and mitigating risks.
IP Head at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
The software composition analysis is most effective for security risk management.
Director at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
The policy-driven approach of JFrog Xray helped me maintain security standards by integrating it in the development pipeline.
DevSecOps Engineer at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
The most valuable features of JFrog Xray are its curation capabilities, its native integration with Artifactory, scanning for vulnerabilities, and license compliance features.
Development Senior at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
With other registries such as ECR, we can use the images only in the AWS cloud. With JFrog, we can use this registry from any cloud or work locally as well.
DevOps Engineer at Syvora
 

Categories and Ranking

Black Duck SCA
Ranking in Software Composition Analysis (SCA)
2nd
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
22
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
JFrog Xray
Ranking in Software Composition Analysis (SCA)
5th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
Vulnerability Management (37th), Container Security (14th), Software Supply Chain Security (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Software Composition Analysis (SCA) category, the mindshare of Black Duck SCA is 12.5%, down from 20.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of JFrog Xray is 8.3%, down from 9.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Software Composition Analysis (SCA) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Black Duck SCA12.5%
JFrog Xray8.3%
Other79.2%
Software Composition Analysis (SCA)
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer2587080 - PeerSpot reviewer
IP Head at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Delivers robust accuracy for identifying and mitigating risks but setup and security can improve
My deployment of Black Duck will take a few hours minimum. In the earlier on-premise scenario, which I've seen in other organizations, it takes a few days because you have to get the server installed, then actually keep installing various patch upgrades as it happens. The cloud version is a lot faster, probably taking only a few hours to complete. Regarding Black Duck leveraging AI to enhance security scanning of open-source components, I would not be able to address that because I have not yet explored that area significantly. Based on my experience, I would recommend Black Duck to other people if they can digest the higher cost. It helps in many aspects. I would rate this solution overall at 7 to 8. Disclaimer: The review is provided in personal capacity as an individual and not the opinion of the organization or corporate to which I belong to.
Anand Nanwana - PeerSpot reviewer
DevOps Engineer at Syvora
Offers flexibility across clouds and easy credential management while interface improvements are needed
For JFrog Xray, the Artifactory and package repositories are valuable features. There are many benefits from JFrog Xray. For example, with other registries such as ECR, we can use the images only in the AWS cloud. With JFrog, we can use this registry from any cloud or work locally as well. JFrog can support multiple packages, such as NuGet package, pip, and other technologies. It can be used for Terraform as well. The credential management is very easy in JFrog. For instance, when using GitHub action as a CI/CD tool, I just need to create a token and set up JFrog CLI there and give access to the repository. With multiple repositories, I can generate a token for a specific repository, add that token in the GitHub secret, fetch from the CI/CD, run the command JFrog CLI, and authenticate through the token. Then we can push the images into JFrog.
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Software Composition Analysis (SCA) solutions are best for your needs.
879,425 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
17%
Manufacturing Company
16%
Computer Software Company
12%
Insurance Company
4%
Financial Services Firm
25%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Computer Software Company
10%
Government
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Large Enterprise16
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business1
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise6
 

Questions from the Community

How does WhiteSource compare with Black Duck?
We researched Black Duck but ultimately chose WhiteSource when looking for an application security tool. WhiteSource is a software solution that enables agile open source security and license compl...
What do you like most about Black Duck?
The cloud option of the product is always available and a positive aspect of the solution.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Black Duck?
The price charged by Black Duck is exorbitant. For the features provided by the product, I would not want to pay a high price. There are many other products in the market that offer better features...
What do you like most about JFrog Xray?
JFrog Xray shows us a list of vulnerabilities that can impact our code.
What needs improvement with JFrog Xray?
I would assess the integration of JFrog Xray with CI/CD tools as the weak point. You have two means to do that: one is using the API, or the other is using the command line from JFrog. That part is...
What is your primary use case for JFrog Xray?
For JFrog Xray product, you can use it for two main goals: compliance and security. You can use it to check if your licenses are compliant, and you can check if your dependencies you want to use ar...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

Blackduck Hub, Black Duck Protex, Black Duck Security Checker
JFrog Security Essentials
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Samsung, Siemens, ScienceLogic, BryterCX, Dynatrace
google, amazon, cisco, netflix, oracle, vmware, facebook
Find out what your peers are saying about Black Duck SCA vs. JFrog Xray and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
879,425 professionals have used our research since 2012.