Fortify Application Defender vs Mend.io comparison

Fortify Application Defender

Read 35 Mend.io reviews

10,738 Views
6,121 Comparison Views

97% willing to recommend

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 8, 2024

Mend.io and Fortify Application Defender compete in the application security market. Users generally prefer Mend.io for its pricing and support, but Fortify Application Defender is often chosen for its comprehensive features.

Features: Mend.io stands out for effective remediation guidance, seamless integration with DevOps pipelines, and ease of adoption. Fortify Application Defender is known for real-time security monitoring, extensive threat protection, and advanced security features.

Room for Improvement: Mend.io could benefit from enhanced reporting tools, more detailed documentation, and bolstered analytical capabilities. Fortify Application Defender could improve with better customization options, reduced false-positive rates, and increased user adaptability.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Mend.io is praised for its straightforward deployment and responsive support. Fortify Application Defender, while having a more complex deployment, offers a comprehensive support package highly valued by users.

Pricing and ROI: Mend.io offers competitive pricing and good ROI, appealing to those seeking cost-effective solutions. Fortify Application Defender, despite a higher setup cost, delivers significant ROI due to its advanced features, offering long-term value to larger enterprises.

To learn more, read our detailed Fortify Application Defender vs. Mend.io Report (Updated: September 2026).

Fortify Application Defender vs. Mend.io

Download the complete report

Helped 914,262 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

Fortify Application Defender

Ranking in Application Security Tools

33rd

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mend.io

Ranking in Application Security Tools

10th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Software Composition Analysis (SCA) (5th), Static Code Analysis (4th), Software Supply Chain Security (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Application Security Tools category, the mindshare of Fortify Application Defender is 1.5%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Mend.io is 2.4%, down from 3.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Security Tools Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Mend.io	2.4%
Fortify Application Defender	1.5%
Other	96.1%

Application Security Tools

Featured Reviews

VinothSivam

CTO at Abcl

Useful for fast code review in devOps pipelines

I rate the tool's scalability a seven out of ten. However, I'm concerned about how it handles an increasing number of lines of code. As the complexity grows, so does the time it takes for the tool to review everything. I want more clarity on how Fortify Application Defender handles multiple threats. We have numerous endpoints, but the tool runs in our pipeline, meaning it operates in the cloud. All our code is configured there, and the tool runs integration testing, unit testing, user testing, and final production code tests. It's a day-to-day experience. It's utilized almost every day as part of our pipeline runs. Each team responsible for integration testing, human testing, user access testing, and preproduction testing runs it whenever they take a build.

Read full review

meetharoon

CEO at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees

Centralized security monitoring has reduced false positives and improves dependency governance

The only area for improvement I would say is that the false positives are nearly zero; everything is mostly like 99 to 99.99% or we can say 100% accurate. There were a few areas for improvement just from the last time I saw; I think the user experience had a little problem. We wanted to have certain reports based on our kind of scenario, but the tool did not allow us to create custom reports. We had asked for some facility and some ability for us to create some custom reports. That would be awesome if they allow us to create custom reports the way we wanted. There is one small area which I don't know whether we should call a tool limitation or a wish list; if I use a library and I don't use all the capabilities of the library but only a portion of it and that portion is not vulnerable, but there is a component which is outdated, that is a problem, even though I don't use that component. Mend.io will discover there is a problem in the whole library; that is correct. That's a valid discovery, but in my case, for example, if I don't use that particular portion, then it actually is not making sense for me, but that's not a limitation of Mend.io; I think that's a general problem with any tool in the market because no tool in the market will actually know what portion of the code I'm actually using from that particular library if it is vulnerable or not.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"We are able to provide out customers with a secure application after development. They are no longer left wondering if they are vulnerable to different threats within the market following deployment."

"The most valuable feature is the ability to automatically feed it rules what it's coupled with the WebInspect dynamic application scanning technology."

"Fortify Application Defender's most valuable features are machine learning algorithms, real-time remediation, and automatic vulnerability notifications."

"The tool's most valuable feature is software composition analysis. This feature works well with my .NET applications, providing a better understanding of library vulnerabilities."

"Fortify Application Defender has a few drawbacks, it has its own pros and cons, but it's a good tool to use in any industry."

"This is a great tool and the kind of support it provides is very helpful."

"Its ability to find security defects is valuable."

"The solution helped us to improve the code quality of our organization."

More Fortify Application Defender pros

"The main value is that it showed us what we needed to fix, and with the dashboard security trends feature, we can see over time if we made progress."

"We set the solution up and enabled it and we had everything running pretty quickly."

"The most valuable feature is the inventory, where it compiles a list of all of the third-party libraries that we have on our estate."

"WhiteSource is unique in the scanning of open-source licenses. Additionally, the vulnerabilities aspect of the solution is a benefit. We don't use WhiteSource in the whole organization, but we use it for some projects. There we receive a sense of the vulnerabilities of the open-source components, which improves our security work. The reports are automated which is useful."

"For us, the most valuable tool was open-source licensing analysis."

"The solution boasts a broad range of features and covers much of what an ideal SCA tool should."

"There are multiple different integrations there. We use Mend for CI/CD that goes through Azure as well. It works seamlessly. We never have any issues with it."

"Our dev team uses the fix suggestions feature to quickly find the best path for remediation."

More Mend.io pros

Cons

"Fortify Application Defender gives a lot of false positives."

"The workbench is a little bit complex when you first start using it."

"The biggest complaint that I have heard concerns additional platform support because right now, it only supports applications that are written in .NET and Java."

"I encountered many false positives for Python applications."

"Support for older compilers/IDEs is lacking."

"Fortify Application Defender could improve by supporting more code languages, such as GRAAS and Groovy."

"The false positive rate should be lower."

"The product should integrate industry-standard code review tools internally with its system. This would streamline the coding process, as developers wouldn't need multiple tools for code review and security checks. Many independent and open-source tools are available, from Apache to various libraries. Using multiple DevOps pipeline tools can slow the turnaround time."

More Fortify Application Defender cons

"It would be good if it can do dynamic code analysis. It is not necessarily in that space, but it can do more because we have too many tools. Their partner relationship support is a little bit confusing. They haven't really streamlined the support process when we buy through a reseller. They should improve their process."

"The dashboard UI and UX are problematic."

"I would like to have an additional compliance pack. Currently, it does not have anything for the CIS framework or the NIST framework. If we directly run a scan, and it is under the CIS framework, we can directly tell the auditor that this product is now CIS compliant."

"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."

"WhiteSource is working on a UI refresh. That's probably been one of the pain points for us as it feels like a really old application."

"The initial setup was of an intermediate complexity; it was neither complex nor straightforward and could have been easier."

"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."

"Mend lets you create custom policies. They're not too complicated to set up, but it would be helpful if they had some preconfigured policies to match what we have in Azure DevOps. That would save us a lot of time. It's tedious to configure the policies manually, and I lack the capacity to do it right now. Other products have preconfigured packs and templates, and Mend doesn't."

More Mend.io cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of this solution could be less expensive."

"I rate the solution's pricing a five out of ten. It comes as an annual cloud subscription. The tool's pricing is around 50 lakhs."

"The product’s price is much higher than other tools."

"The base licensing costs for the SaaS platform is about $900 USD per application, per year."

"Fortify Application Defender is very expensive."

"The licensing is very complex, it's project based and can range from $10,000 to $200,000+ depending on the project type and size."

"This is an expensive solution."

"Over the last two years, they have tried to add more and more features to their license packages, but the price is a little bit high, comparatively."

"Pricing is competitive."

"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. "

"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."

"Mend is costly but not overly expensive. The license was quite expensive this year, but we managed to negotiate the price down to the same as last year. At the same time, it's a good value. We're getting what we're paying for and still not using all the features. We could probably get more out of the tool and make it more valuable. At the moment, we don't have the capacity to do that."

"We always negotiate for the best price possible, and as far as I know, Mend has done an excellent job with their pricing. Our management is happy with the pricing, which has led to renewals."

"Its pricing model is per developer. It depends on the number of developers in the company. The license is for a minimum of 20 developers. So, even if you are a small startup with less than 10 developers, you have to buy a license for 20 developers on a yearly subscription, which makes it quite expensive for startup customers. I provide consultation to startup accelerators. They're small at the beginning, and only once they grow to 20 developers, they can afford this tool. As a result, WhiteSource is missing this target audience. Their licensing is not flexible."

More Mend.io pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Application Security Tools solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

914,262 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

16%

Construction Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

14%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Computer Software Company

10%

Outsourcing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	3
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	8

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	10
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	22

Questions from the Community

Ask a question

Earn 20 points

How does WhiteSource compare with SonarQube?

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, ea...

See all answers

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...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Mend.io?

Mend.io SCA offers a competitive pricing structure that is relatively affordable compared to similar solutions in the market. This makes it an attractive option for organizations looking to enhance...

See all answers

Comparisons

SonarQube vs Fortify Application Defender

Compared 16% of the time

Checkmarx One vs Fortify Application Defender

Compared 10% of the time

Veracode vs Fortify Application Defender

Compared 7% of the time

Klocwork vs Fortify Application Defender

Compared 6% of the time

TrendAI Vision One – Cloud Security vs Fortify Application Defender

Compared 2% of the time

More Fortify Application Defender Competitors

Black Duck SCA vs Mend.io

Compared 6% of the time

Sonatype Lifecycle vs Mend.io

Compared 5% of the time

SonarQube vs Mend.io

Compared 5% of the time

Veracode vs Mend.io

Compared 5% of the time

Snyk vs Mend.io

Compared 4% of the time

More Mend.io Competitors

Product Reports

Application Security Tools

Download Fortify Application Defender product report

Download Mend.io product report

Also Known As

HPE Fortify Application Defender, Micro Focus Fortify Application Defender

WhiteSource, Mend SCA, Mend.io Supply Chain Defender, Mend SAST

Overview

Fortify Application Defender offers strong protection by identifying and resolving security defects using machine learning and real-time remediation. Its user-friendly interface simplifies integration in CI/CD workflows and supports security scanning across operating systems and compilers.

Fortify Application Defender is a comprehensive tool for static code analysis and security scanning. It integrates machine learning algorithms to identify vulnerabilities quickly and offers real-time remediation solutions. Its seamless integration with WebInspect allows for tailored rule sets that significantly improve defense against application-specific threats. The tool's efficiency in static and software composition analysis provides actionable repair insights. As part of a DevOps pipeline, it aids in maintaining code quality, helping organizations protect sensitive information within their applications. Additionally, it supports multiple operating systems and environments, allowing users to scan for vulnerabilities in both code and libraries effectively.

What are the key features of Fortify Application Defender?

Security Defect Identification: Uses advanced algorithms to detect security flaws.
Real-time Remediation: Provides immediate solutions for vulnerabilities.
WebInspect Integration: Customizable rule sets enhance protection.
Actionable Insights: Delivers clear repair strategies.
User-friendly Configuration: Easy set-up in CI/CD pipelines.

What benefits should users consider when evaluating Fortify Application Defender?

Scalable Integration: Works with multiple operating systems and compilers.
Improved Code Quality: Prevents exposure of sensitive data.
Efficient Scanning: Reduces time to identify threats.
Customizable Rules: Enhances security measures specific to applications.

Fortify Application Defender is commonly used in industries like banking and finance to secure applications by inspecting source code for vulnerabilities. Companies can integrate it seamlessly into their DevOps pipelines, ensuring that their applications are protected against cyberattacks while maintaining high code quality. They can thereby avoid common risks such as IP and password exposure by leveraging static code analysis and other integrated technologies available within this tool.

OpenText

Mend.io integrates seamlessly into development environments, providing open-source dependency scanning, CVE detection, and license management to enhance security and efficiency during code development.

Mend.io delivers comprehensive open-source vulnerability detection and remediation, seamlessly integrating with CI/CD workflows. It equips organizations with tools for software composition analysis and license risk detection, efficiently identifying vulnerabilities and managing policies. Mend.io supports a wide array of programming languages and deployment environments while integrating with developer tools like GitHub, Jenkins, and Azure DevOps to enhance security feedback and decision-making. Its ease of use and rapid setup boost efficiency in managing open-source dependencies and reducing vulnerabilities.

What are Mend.io's Key Features?

Open-source dependency scanning: Efficiently scans and identifies vulnerabilities in third-party libraries.
CVE detection: Detects and alerts on potential security risks with granularity.
License management: Manages open-source licenses to ensure compliance and reduce legal risks.
Integration: Works seamlessly with Visual Studio, Azure DevOps, and more.
Fix suggestions: Provides actionable solutions to identified vulnerabilities.
Automated policy management: Enhances security by automating policy adherence.

What Advantages Should be Considered in User Feedback?

Development efficiency: Streamlines workflows to improve code security and quality.
Rapid setup: Minimal time investment required, allowing immediate integration into existing processes.
Extensive language support: Accommodates multiple programming environments, enhancing flexibility.
Robust integration options: Compatible with top development tools, bolstering productivity.

Mend.io empowers industries such as finance, healthcare, and e-commerce by integrating robust open-source security measures within their development cycles, enhancing their ability to address vulnerabilities swiftly and maintain compliance amidst rigorous regulatory standards.

Sample Customers

ServiceMaster, Saltworks, SAP

Microsoft, Autodesk, NCR, Target, IBM, vodafone, Siemens, GE digital, KPMG, LivePerson, Jack Henry and Associates

Fortify Application Defender vs. Mend.io