Coverity vs HCL AppScan comparison

Black Duck and HCLSoftware are both solutions in the Static Application Security Testing (SAST) category. Black Duck is ranked #4 with an average rating of 8.0, while HCLSoftware is ranked #10 with an average rating of 7.9. Black Duck holds a 7.5% mindshare in SAST, compared to HCLSoftware ’s 2.6% mindshare. Additionally, 88% of Black Duck users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 83% of HCLSoftware users who would recommend it.

Coverity

Read 42 Coverity reviews

11,969 Views
8,281 Comparison Views

88% willing to recommend

HCL AppScan

Read 43 HCL AppScan reviews

3,999 Views
3,020 Comparison Views

83% willing to recommend

Coverity

HCL AppScan

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 8, 2024

HCL AppScan and Coverity compete in the application security space. User feedback suggests HCL AppScan often holds an advantage in comprehensive reporting and flexibility, while Coverity is preferred for its deep static analysis capabilities. HCL AppScan may offer better pricing options and quicker setup, but Coverity's robust feature set validates its higher cost.

Features: HCL AppScan is noted for customizable scanning capabilities, making it versatile. It provides flexibility for various environments and comprehensive reporting. Coverity is recognized for detailed code analysis, seamless workflow integration, and a focus on accuracy, benefiting those prioritizing code quality.

Room for Improvement: Users recommend HCL AppScan improve scan speed, real-time protection, and performance enhancements. Coverity could enhance reporting features, configuration controls, and accessibility.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: HCL AppScan is praised for straightforward deployment and helpful customer support. Coverity, while efficient after deployment, requires a longer initial setup. Both offer adequate customer service, though Coverity customers prefer a quicker initial rollout.

Pricing and ROI: HCL AppScan provides attractive setup costs and a quicker ROI with competitive pricing. Coverity, despite its higher initial cost, offers significant long-term value through accuracy and reduced maintenance demands, appealing to organizations focused on precision.

To learn more, read our detailed Coverity vs. HCL AppScan Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Coverity vs. HCL AppScan

April 2025

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Helped 849,686 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

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

Categories and Ranking

Coverity

Ranking in Static Application Security Testing (SAST)

4th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

HCL AppScan

Ranking in Static Application Security Testing (SAST)

10th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Security Tools (14th), Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST) (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Static Application Security Testing (SAST) category, the mindshare of Coverity is 7.5%, up from 6.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of HCL AppScan is 2.6%, up from 2.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Static Application Security Testing (SAST)

Featured Reviews

Md. Shahriar Hussain

Information Security Analyst at Banglalink

Offers impressive reporting features with user-friendliness and high scalability

The solution can be easily setup but requires heavy integration due to the multiple types of port and programming languages involved. Comparing the resource requirements of the solution I would say it can be installed effortlessly. I would rate the initial setup an eight out of ten. A professional needs some pre-acquired knowledge to manage Coverity's deployment process, but the local solution partners provide support well enough for trouble-free deployment. The overall deployment process of Coverity took around two and a half hours in our organization. The deployment duration depends upon the operating system and resources including high-end RAM and CPU processors.

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Rishi Anupam

Senior Manager at Airtel

A stable and scalable scanning solution with good reporting feature

The solution is used for the vulnerabilities scan on the network side The reporting part is the most valuable feature. The penetration testing feature should be included. I have been using the solution for four years. It is a stable solution. I rate it seven out of ten. It is a scalable…

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Provides software security, and helps to find potential security bugs or defects."

"The solution effectively identifies bugs in code."

"Coverity is scalable."

"The reporting feature is up to the mark."

"It has the lowest false positives."

"It's very stable."

"I like Coverity's capability to scan codes once we push it. We don't need more time to review our colleagues' codes. Its UI is pretty straightforward."

"Coverity is easy to use and easy to integrate with CI."

More Coverity pros

"The most valuable feature of the solution is the scanning or security part."

"It highlights, with several grades of severity, the types of vulnerabilities, so we can focus on the most severe security vulnerabilities in the code."

"It is a stable solution...It is a scalable solution...The initial setup or installation of HCL AppScan is easy."

"It has certainly helped us find vulnerabilities in our software, so this is priceless in the end."

"It is easy it is to use. It is quick to find things, because of the code scanning tools. It's quite simple to use and it is very good the way it reports the findings."

"We are now deploying less defects to production."

"We leverage it as a quality check against code."

"The most valuable feature of HCL AppScan is its integration with the SDLC, particularly during the coding phase."

More HCL AppScan pros

Cons

"Coverity is not a user-friendly product."

"Sometimes, vulnerabilities remain unidentified even after setting up the rules."

"We actually specified several checkers, but we found some checkers had a higher false positive rate. I think this is a problem. Because we have to waste some time is really the issue because the issue is not an issue. I mean, the tool pauses or an issue, but the same issue is the filter now.Some check checkers cannot find some issues, but sometimes they find issues that are not relevant, right, that are not really issues. Some customisation mechanism can be added in the next release so that we can define our Checker. The Modelling feature provided by Coverity helps in finding more information for potential issues but it is not mature enough, it should be mature. The fast testing feature for security testing campaign can be added as well. So if you correctly integrate it with the training team, maybe you can help us to find more potential issues."

"The product could be enhanced by providing video troubleshooting guides, making issue resolution more accessible. Troubleshooting without visual guides can be time-consuming."

"It would be great if we could customize the rules to focus on critical issues."

"Reporting engine needs to be more robust."

"The product could be enhanced by providing video troubleshooting guides, making issue resolution more accessible. Troubleshooting without visual guides can be time-consuming."

"The solution needs to improve its false positives."

More Coverity cons

"Improving usability could enhance the overall experience with AppScan. It would be beneficial to make the solution more user-friendly, ensuring that everyone can easily navigate and utilize its features."

"AppScan needs to improve its handling of false positives."

"One thing which I think can be improved is the CI/CD Integration"

"The penetration testing feature should be included."

"IBM Security AppScan Source is rather hard to use."

"The databases for HCL are small and have room for improvement."

"It has crashed at times."

"There is room for improvement in the pricing model."

More HCL AppScan cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"This is a pretty expensive solution. The overall value of the solution could be improved if the price was reduced. Licensing is done on an annual basis."

"I would rate the tool's pricing a one out of ten."

"The tool's price is somewhere in the middle. It's neither cheap nor expensive. I would rate the pricing a five out of ten."

"Coverity is quite expensive."

"The tool was fairly priced."

"The licensing fees are based on the number of lines of code."

"The solution is affordable."

"The price is competitive with other solutions."

More Coverity pricing and cost advice

"The product is moderately priced, though it's an investment due to extensive code analysis needs."

"I rate the product's price a seven on a scale of one to ten, where one is low, and ten is high. HCL AppScan is an expensive tool."

"HCL AppScan is expensive."

"Our clients are willing to pay the extra money. It is expensive."

"The solution is cheap."

"The price is very expensive."

"AppScan is a little bit expensive. IBM needs to work a little bit on the pricing model, decreasing the license cost."

"I would rate the product's pricing a nine out of ten. The product's pricing is expensive compared to the features that they offer."

More HCL AppScan pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

33%

Computer Software Company

14%

Financial Services Firm

Government

Computer Software Company

18%

Financial Services Firm

14%

Government

11%

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

How would you decide between Coverity and Sonarqube?

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 rem...

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What do you like most about Coverity?

The solution has improved our code quality and security very well.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Coverity?

I do not know about the pricing.

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What do you like most about HCL AppScan?

The most valuable feature of HCL AppScan is its integration with the SDLC, particularly during the coding phase.

See all answers

What needs improvement with HCL AppScan?

AppScan needs to improve its handling of false positives. It also requires enhancements in customer support, similar to what Veracode provides. Regularly scheduling calls with clients to discuss fe...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for HCL AppScan?

The primary use case for AppScan is for security purposes. I compare AppScan with other tools such as Veracode. We use AppScan for vulnerability detection and auto-remediation of vulnerabilities wi...

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Comparisons

SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) vs Coverity

Compared 50% of the time

Klocwork vs Coverity

Compared 7% of the time

Fortify on Demand vs Coverity

Compared 6% of the time

Veracode vs Coverity

Compared 5% of the time

Polyspace Code Prover vs Coverity

Compared 5% of the time

More Coverity Competitors

Acunetix vs HCL AppScan

Compared 16% of the time

SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) vs HCL AppScan

Compared 12% of the time

Veracode vs HCL AppScan

Compared 10% of the time

Fortify on Demand vs HCL AppScan

Compared 7% of the time

OWASP Zap vs HCL AppScan

Compared 7% of the time

More HCL AppScan Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Coverity

April 2025

Download Coverity product report

Buyer's Guide

HCL AppScan

April 2025

Download HCL AppScan product report

Also Known As

Synopsys Static Analysis

IBM Security AppScan, Rational AppScan, AppScan

Overview

Coverity gives you the speed, ease of use, accuracy, industry standards compliance, and scalability that you need to develop high-quality, secure applications. Coverity identifies critical software quality defects and security vulnerabilities in code as it’s written, early in the development process, when it’s least costly and easiest to fix. With the Code Sight integrated development environment (IDE) plugin, developers get accurate analysis in seconds in their IDE as they code. Precise actionable remediation advice and context-specific eLearning help your developers understand how to fix their prioritized issues quickly, without having to become security experts.

Coverity seamlessly integrates automated security testing into your CI/CD pipelines and supports your existing development tools and workflows. Choose where and how to do your development: on-premises or in the cloud with the Polaris Software Integrity Platform (SaaS), a highly scalable, cloud-based application security platform. Coverity supports more than 20 languages and 200 frameworks and templates.

Black Duck

IBM Security AppScan enhances web application security and mobile application security, improves application security program management and strengthens regulatory compliance. By scanning your web and mobile applications prior to deployment, AppScan enables you to identify security vulnerabilities and generate reports and fix recommendations.

HCLSoftware

Sample Customers

SAP, Mega International, Thales Alenia Space

Essex Technology Group Inc., Cisco, West Virginia University, APIS IT

Buyer's Guide

Coverity vs. HCL AppScan

April 2025

Free Report: Coverity vs. HCL AppScan

Find out what your peers are saying about Coverity vs. HCL AppScan and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.

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We monitor all Static Application Security Testing (SAST) 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.