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8,977 views|5,412 comparisons
Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary
Updated on May 29, 2022

We performed a comparison between Black Duck and Mend (formerly WhiteSource) based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.

  • Ease of Deployment: While some Black Duck reviewers report the initial setup to be straightforward, others feel that the setup can be complex. Mend users say the initial setup is straightforward and easy.
  • Features: Users of both products are happy with their stability and scalability. Black Duck reviewers like its vulnerability scanning abilities but say its analysis features need to improve. Mend users like its reporting and analytic capabilities and say it is good at identifying security vulnerabilities. Several Mend users mention that its UI could be enhanced.
  • Pricing: Reviewers of both solutions note that their prices are relatively high.

  • ROI: Black Duck reviewers do not mention ROI. Mend users report seeing an ROI.
  • Service and Support: Some Black Duck users are satisfied with the support they receive, while others write that the support’s response time is slow. Most Mend users report being satisfied with the level of support they receive

Comparison Results: Mend is the clear winner in this comparison. Compared with Black Duck, it is easier to set up and has better reporting and analysis features and superior customer support. Mend also has a proven ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed Black Duck vs. Mend.io Report (Updated: March 2024).
765,386 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"The solution works well on Mac products.""Black Duck is pretty extensive in terms of the scan reserves and the vulnerability exposures. From that perspective, I'm happy with it.""The installation is very easy.""We accidentally use third-party library APIs, which may not be secure. Our technical team may not have the end time or expertise to figure it out. Black Duck helps us with that and saves us time.""It is able to drill down to the source level.""The most valuable feature of Black Duck is the seamless integration to scan our Docker binary files, it provides us all open vulnerabilities, and it ensures a reference point from where it finds the vulnerability is up to date. For example, if there is any new vulnerability found, they are immediately available in the Black Duck. There is no delay in finding the vulnerabilities, they are called out in our code immediately.""Policy management is a valuable feature.""The product enables other applications to be secure."

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"The license management of WhiteSource was at a good level. As compared to other tools that I have used, its functionality for the licenses for the code libraries was quite good. Its UI was also fine.""The dashboard view and the management view are most valuable.""With the fix suggestions feature, not only do you get the specific trace back to where the vulnerability is within your code, but you also get fix suggestions.""The most valuable features are the reporting, customizing libraries "In-house, White list, license selection", comparing the products/projects, and License & Copyright resolution.""We find licenses together with WhiteSource which are associated with a certain library, then we get a classification of the license. This is with respect to criticality and vulnerability, so we could take action and improve some things, or replace a third-party library which seems to be too risky for us to use on legal grounds.""The inventory management as well as the ability to identify security vulnerabilities has been the most valuable for our business.""The vulnerability analysis is the best aspect of the solution.""The best feature is that the Mend R&D team does their due diligence for all the vulnerabilities. In case they observe any important or critical vulnerabilities, such as the Log4j-related vulnerability, we usually get a dedicated email from our R&D team saying that this particular vulnerability has been exploited in the world, and we should definitely check our project for this and take corrective actions."

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Cons
"It is a cloud-only solution. In many cases, companies like to evaluate the software, but they're very reluctant to give you the software. It would be great if they could offer an on-prem component that could be used to scan the code and then upload the discovery results to the cloud and get all the information from there, but there is no such possibility. You have to upload the code to the Black Duck cloud system. Of course, they have a strong legal department, and they offer some configuration, but it is never enough. You have to give the code, which is a drawback. In modern designs like Snyk or FOSSA, you don't need to give the code. It requires more native integration with Coverity because they go together technically. You need both Coverity and Black Duck Hub. It would be really helpful for companies working in this space to get a combined offer from the same company. They should provide an option to buy Coverity for an additional fee. Coverity combined with Black Duck Hub will provide a one-step analysis to get everything you need and a unified report. It would be really great to be able to connect Black Duck Hub with Coverity unified reports.""I would like to see more integration with other solutions, such as IntelliJ IDEA.""The solution must provide more open APIs.""Due to the fact that, with our software developer life cycle, we don't need to scan our source code every day or every week. For that reason, we find the cost is too high. We might only actually use it five to ten times a year, which makes it expensive.""The solution's pricing model and documentation areas of concern where improvement is needed.""The documentation is quite scattered.""It can be cumbersome to use or invalidate open source software because there is a hold time to check requirements or common regulations to ensure compliance.""It needs to be more user-friendly for developers and in general, to ensure compliance."

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"We have been looking at how we could improve the automation to human involvement ratio from 60:40 to 70:30, or even potentially 80:20, as there is room for improvement here. We are discussing this internally and with Mend; they are very accommodating to us. We think they openly receive our feedback and do their best to implement our thoughts into the roadmap.""I rated the solution an eight out of ten because WhiteSource hasn't built in a couple of features that we would have loved to use and they say they're on their roadmap. I'm hoping that they'll be able to build and deliver in 2022.""On the reporting side, they could make some improvements. They are making the reports better and better, but sometimes it takes a lot of time to generate a report for our entire organization.""At times, the latency of getting items out of the findings after they're remediated is higher than it should be.""The only thing that I don't find support for on Mend Prioritize is C++.""If anything, I would spend more time making this more user-friendly, better documenting the CLI, and adding more examples to help expand the current documentation.""I would like to see the static analysis included with the open-source version.""We specifically use this solution within our CICD pipelines in Azure DevOps, and we would like to have a gate so that if the score falls below a certain value then we can block the pipeline from running."

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Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "Depending on the use case, the cost could range from $10,000 USD to $70,000 USD."
  • "The price is quite high because the behavior of the software during the scan is similar to competing products."
  • "The price is low. It's not an expensive solution."
  • "Black Duck is more suitable if you require a lot of licensing compliance. For smaller organizations, WhiteSource is better because its pricing policies are not really suitable for huge organizations."
  • "It is expensive."
  • "I rate the product's price one on a scale of one to ten, where one is a high price, and ten is a low price."
  • "The pricing is a little high."
  • More Black Duck Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "We are paying a lot of money to use WhiteSource. In our company, it is not easy to argue that it is worth the price. ​"
  • "The version that we are using, WhiteSource Bolt, is a free integration with Azure DevOps."
  • "Pricing is competitive."
  • "The solution involves a yearly licensing fee."
  • "As we were using an SaaS-based service, the solution must be scalable, although my understanding is that this is based on the licensing model one is using."
  • "WhiteSource is much more affordable than Veracode."
  • "This is an expensive solution."
  • "When comparing the price of WhiteSource to the competition it is priced well. The cost for 50 users is approximately $18,000 annually."
  • More Mend.io Pricing and Cost Advice →

    report
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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer: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… more »
    Top Answer:The UI is the solution's most valuable feature since it allows for easy pipeline integration.
    Top Answer:I rate the product's price one on a scale of one to ten, where one is a high price, and ten is a low price.
    Top Answer:Red Hat Ceph does well in simplifying storage integration by replacing the need for numerous storage solutions. This solution allows for multiple copies of replicated and coded pools to be kept, easy… more »
    Top Answer:The best feature is that the Mend R&D team does their due diligence for all the vulnerabilities. In case they observe any important or critical vulnerabilities, such as the Log4j-related… more »
    Ranking
    Views
    15,246
    Comparisons
    10,629
    Reviews
    7
    Average Words per Review
    373
    Rating
    8.1
    Views
    8,977
    Comparisons
    5,412
    Reviews
    11
    Average Words per Review
    1,333
    Rating
    8.5
    Comparisons
    SonarQube logo
    Compared 25% of the time.
    Snyk logo
    Compared 10% of the time.
    Checkmarx logo
    Compared 10% of the time.
    Veracode logo
    Compared 9% of the time.
    JFrog Xray logo
    Compared 5% of the time.
    Also Known As
    Blackduck Hub, Black Duck Protex, Black Duck Security Checker
    WhiteSource, Mend SCA
    Learn More
    Overview

    Black Duck is a comprehensive solution for managing security, license compliance, and code quality risks that come from the use of open source in applications and containers. Named a leader in software composition analysis (SCA) by Forrester, Black Duck gives you unmatched visibility into third-party code, enabling you to control it across your software supply chain and throughout the application life cycle.

    Mend.io is a software composition analysis tool that secures what developers create. The solution provides an automated reduction of the software attack surface, reduces developer burdens, and accelerates app delivery. Mend.io provides open-source analysis with its in-house and other multiple sources of software vulnerabilities. In addition, the solution offers license and policy violation alerts, has great pipeline integration, and, since it is a SaaS (software as a service), it doesn’t require you to physically maintain servers or data centers for any implementation. Not only does Mend.io reduce enterprise application security risk, it also helps developers meet deadlines faster.

    Mend.io Features

    Mend.io has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:

    • Vulnerability analysis
    • Automated remediation
    • Seamless integration
    • Business prioritization
    • Limitless scalability
    • Intuitive interface
    • Language support
    • Integration
    • Continuous monitoring
    • Remediation suggestions
    • Customization

    Mend.io Benefits

    There are many benefits to implementing Mend.io. Some of the biggest advantages the solution offers include:

    • Easy to use: The Mend.io platform is very user-friendly and easy to set up.
    • Third-party libraries: The solution eases the process of keeping track of all the used third-party dependencies within a product. It not only scans for the pure occurrence (also transitively) but also takes care of licenses and vulnerabilities.
    • Static code analysis: With Mend.io’s static code analysis, you can quickly identify security weaknesses in custom code across desktop, web, and mobile applications.
    • Broad support: Mend.io provides 27 different programming languages and various programming frameworks.
    • Easy integration: Mend.io makes integration very easy with existing DevOps environments and CI/CD pipelines so developers don’t need to manually configure or trigger the scan.
    • Ultra-fast scanning engine: The solution’s scanning engine generates results up to ten times faster than legacy SAST solutions.
    • Unified developer experience: Mend.io has a unified developer experience inside the code repository that shows side-by-side security alerts and remediation suggestions for custom code and open-source code.

    Reviews from Real Users

    Below are some reviews and helpful feedback written by PeerSpot users currently using the Mend.io solution.

    Jeffrey H., System Manager of Cloud Engineering at Common Spirit, says, “Finding vulnerabilities is pretty easy. Mend.io (formerly WhiteSource) does a great job of that and we had quite a few when we first put this in place. Mend.io does a very good job of finding the open-source, checking the versions, and making sure they're secure. They notify us of critical high, medium, and low impacts, and if anything is wrong. We find the product very easy to use and we use it as a core part of our strategy for scanning product code moving toward release.”

    PeerSpot reviewer Ben D., Head of Software Engineering at a legal firm, mentions, “The way WhiteSource scans the code is great. It’s easy to identify and remediate open source vulnerabilities using this solution. WhiteSource helped reduce our mean time to resolution since we adopted the product. In terms of integration, it's pretty easy.”

    An IT Service Manager at a wholesaler/distributor comments, “Mend.io provides threat detection and an excellent UI in a highly stable solution, with outstanding technical support.”

    Another reviewer, Kevin D., Intramural OfficialIntramural at Northeastern University, states, "The vulnerability analysis is the best aspect of the solution."

    Sample Customers
    Samsung, Siemens, ScienceLogic, Noser Engineering AG, ClickFox, Dynatrace, CopperLeaf
    Microsoft, Autodesk, NCR, Target, IBM, vodafone, Siemens, GE digital, KPMG, LivePerson, Jack Henry and Associates
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Manufacturing Company60%
    Computer Software Company20%
    Financial Services Firm20%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Financial Services Firm21%
    Manufacturing Company15%
    Computer Software Company15%
    Healthcare Company4%
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company33%
    Financial Services Firm11%
    Media Company6%
    Energy/Utilities Company6%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Financial Services Firm16%
    Computer Software Company16%
    Manufacturing Company10%
    Insurance Company5%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business31%
    Large Enterprise69%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business15%
    Midsize Enterprise10%
    Large Enterprise75%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business36%
    Midsize Enterprise7%
    Large Enterprise57%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business19%
    Midsize Enterprise14%
    Large Enterprise67%
    Buyer's Guide
    Black Duck vs. Mend.io
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about Black Duck vs. Mend.io and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
    765,386 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Black Duck is ranked 1st in Software Composition Analysis (SCA) with 16 reviews while Mend.io is ranked 4th in Software Composition Analysis (SCA) with 29 reviews. Black Duck is rated 7.8, while Mend.io is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of Black Duck writes "Enables applications to be secure, but it must provide more open APIs". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Mend.io writes "Easy to use, great for finding vulnerabilities, and simple to set up". Black Duck is most compared with Snyk, Fortify Static Code Analyzer, JFrog Xray, FOSSA and Checkmarx Software Composition Analysis, whereas Mend.io is most compared with SonarQube, Snyk, Checkmarx, Veracode and JFrog Xray. See our Black Duck vs. Mend.io report.

    See our list of best Software Composition Analysis (SCA) vendors.

    We monitor all Software Composition Analysis (SCA) 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.