Fortify Application Defender vs SonarQube comparison

OpenText and SonarSource Sàrl are both solutions in the Application Security Tools category. OpenText is ranked #24 with an average rating of 8.0, while SonarSource Sàrl is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.2. OpenText holds a 1.1% mindshare in AS, compared to SonarSource Sàrl’s 17.9% mindshare. Additionally, 81% of OpenText users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 83% of SonarSource Sàrl users who would recommend it.

Fortify Application Defender

Read 11 Fortify Application Defender reviews

1,378 Views
1,116 Comparison Views

81% willing to recommend

SonarQube

Read 134 SonarQube reviews

38,470 Views
26,929 Comparison Views

83% willing to recommend

Fortify Application Defender

SonarQube

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 5, 2025

SonarQube and Fortify Application Defender compete in the code analysis and application security category. SonarQube seems to have the upper hand due to its broader programming language support, centralized management, and effective quality gates, while Fortify is notable for its real-time remediation and machine learning algorithms.

Features: SonarQube provides comprehensive code analysis capabilities, including vulnerability identification and CI/CD integration, and supports over 20 programming languages. It offers customizable quality gates and centralized management for detailed code quality visualization. Fortify Application Defender is recognized for its real-time remediation, automatic notifications, and machine learning algorithms. It excels in software composition analysis and integrates effectively with CI/CD pipelines.

Room for Improvement: SonarQube requires enhancements in dynamic code analysis, a more intuitive UI, and reduced false positives for better security integration. Reporting and support for emerging technologies like AI could also be improved. Fortify Application Defender could lower false positives, expand language support, and improve integration with industry-standard code review tools. Its cost and complex licensing are concerns for users.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SonarQube offers flexible deployment across multiple platforms, including on-premises and cloud environments. It benefits from strong community support, despite limited official tech support in the free versions. Fortify offers deployment options on public and on-premises platforms but lacks support for older development environments. Users consider its customer service adequate but costly.

Pricing and ROI: SonarQube provides a cost-effective open-source version for smaller companies, with paid editions offering advanced features, though enterprise pricing can be high. It delivers significant ROI through enhanced code quality and technical debt reduction. Fortify is viewed as expensive with complex licensing. It offers ROI through improved application security and real-time monitoring, though may not be practical for smaller organizations.

To learn more, read our detailed Fortify Application Defender vs. SonarQube Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Fortify Application Defender vs. SonarQube

December 2025

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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

24th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

SonarQube

Ranking in Application Security Tools

1st

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

134

Ranking in other categories

Static Application Security Testing (SAST) (1st), Software Development Analytics (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Application Security Tools category, the mindshare of Fortify Application Defender is 1.1%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SonarQube is 17.9%, down from 26.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Security Tools Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
SonarQube	17.9%
Fortify Application Defender	1.1%
Other	81.0%

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.

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KarthikHarpanhalli

Sr Software Engineering Supervisor at Mozarc Medical

Gains control over rule customization and achieves reliable vulnerability assessment

The deployment process took me about 2 or 3 hours to deploy SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube), although I do not remember exactly since it was done about 2 years back. Currently, about 10 of my developers are using SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) in my company. I do not have plans to increase the usage of SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) in the future as there will not be any requirement to increase. I am a senior software engineer and supervisor at Mozark Medical. My corporate email address is karthik.k.a.r.t.h.i.k.h.a.r.p.a.n.h.a.l.l.i@mozarkmedical.com. Overall, I would rate SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) as a 9 out of 10.

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

"The most valuable features of Fortify Application Defender are the code packages that are default."

"The product saves us cost and time."

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

"The information from Fortify Application Defender on how to fix and solve issues is very good compared to other solutions."

"The most valuable feature is that it analyzes data in real-time."

"I find the configuration of rules in Fortify Application Defender useful. Its integration is also easy."

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

"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."

More Fortify Application Defender pros

"Some of the most valuable features have been the latest up-to-date of the OWASP, the monitoring, the reporting, and the ease of use with the IDE plugins, in terms of integration."

"I find SonarQube Cloud to be very user-friendly with an easy-to-use interface."

"The most valuable features are that it is user-friendly, easy to access, and they provide good training files."

"The product has a friendly UI that is easy to use and understand."

"When we push our code to the repo, while in continuous integration, it will run a few tests and based on the vulnerability data set it has, it can track the vulnerabilities, indicate the code line where the issue exists, and show how much code is covered by all the unit tests, integration tests, and those sorts of things."

"The most valuable features are code scanning and Quality Gates."

"The ability to tailor metrics tracking with SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) has been beneficial to my team and stakeholders as we are able to get portfolio reports and project-wise reports, though there are areas for improvement."

"Can tweak rules and feed them into our build pipelines."

More SonarQube pros

Cons

"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."

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

"The solution could improve the time it takes to scan. When comparing it to SonarQube it does it in minutes while in Fortify Application Defender it can take hours."

"The licensing can be a little complex."

"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."

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

"The false positive rate should be lower."

"The solution is quite expensive."

More Fortify Application Defender cons

"We also use Fortify, which is another tool to find security errors. Fortify is a better security tool. It is better than SonarQube in finding errors. Sometimes, SonarQube doesn't find some of the errors that Fortify is able to find. Fortify also has a community, which SonarQube doesn't have. Its installation is a little bit complex. We need to install a database, install the product, and specify the version of the database and the product. They can simplify the installation and make it easier. We use docker for the installation because it is easier to use. Its dashboard needs to be improved. It is not intuitive. It is hard to understand the interface, and it can be improved to provide a better user experience."

"There needs to be a shareable reporting piece or something we can click and generate easily."

"Dynamic scanning is missing and there are some issues with security scanning."

"The interface could be a little better and should be enhanced."

"The solution could improve the management reports by making them easier to understand for the technical team that needs to review them."

"The handling of the contents of Docker container images could be better."

"There is no automation. You need to put the code there and test. You then pull the results and put them back in the development environment. There is no integration with the development environment. We would like it to be integrated with our development environment, which is basically the CI/CD pipeline or the IDE that we have."

"The reporting can be improved."

More SonarQube cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

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

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

"Fortify Application Defender is very expensive."

"SonarQube is a cost-effective solution."

"I am using the free version of the solution."

"The price of SonarCloud could be less expensive. We are using the community version and the price should be more reasonable."

"The price point on SonarQube is good."

"The development license cost is reasonable, and we've had no concerns about SonarQube when it comes to cost."

"There are many different packages with different pricing options available. We are able to try what we have and if we need extra features we can upgrade the license."

"SonarQube price is a little bit higher than Kiuwan's. Kiuwan also gives a little bit of flexibility in terms of pricing."

"We use the solution free of cost."

More SonarQube pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

16%

Manufacturing Company

13%

Computer Software Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

14%

Manufacturing Company

14%

Computer Software Company

13%

Government

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	41
Midsize Enterprise	24
Large Enterprise	79

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Fortify Application Defender?

I find the configuration of rules in Fortify Application Defender useful. Its integration is also easy.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Fortify Application Defender?

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...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Fortify Application Defender?

We use the solution for fast code review. It is integrated into our DevOps pipeline.

See all answers

Is SonarQube the best tool for static analysis?

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...

See all answers

Which gives you more for your money - SonarQube or Veracode?

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...

See all answers

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...

See all answers

Comparisons

Checkmarx One vs Fortify Application Defender

Compared 17% of the time

Coverity Static vs Fortify Application Defender

Compared 7% of the time

Klocwork vs Fortify Application Defender

Compared 6% of the time

CAST Application Intelligence Platform vs Fortify Application Defender

Compared 6% of the time

OpenText Core Application Security vs Fortify Application Defender

Compared 5% of the time

More Fortify Application Defender Competitors

Checkmarx One vs SonarQube

Compared 27% of the time

Snyk vs SonarQube

Compared 9% of the time

GitHub Advanced Security vs SonarQube

Compared 7% of the time

Coverity Static vs SonarQube

Compared 7% of the time

Semgrep vs SonarQube

Compared 4% of the time

More SonarQube Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Application Security Tools

January 2026

Download Fortify Application Defender product report

Buyer's Guide

SonarQube

December 2025

Download SonarQube product report

Also Known As

HPE Fortify Application Defender, Micro Focus Fortify Application Defender

Sonar, SonarQube Cloud

Overview

Micro Focus Security Fortify Application Defender is a runtime application self-protection (RASP) solution that helps you manage and mitigate risk from homegrown or third-party applications. It provides centralized visibility into application use and abuse while protecting from software vulnerability exploits and other violations in real time.

OpenText

SonarQube provides comprehensive support for multi-language development, custom coding rules, and quality gates, integrated seamlessly into CI/CD pipelines. It empowers teams with clear insights through intuitive dashboards, identifying vulnerabilities, code smells, and technical debt.

SonarQube is renowned for its extensive capabilities in static code analysis, making it an invaluable tool for maintaining code quality. By fully integrating into development processes, it allows organizations to manage vulnerabilities and ensure compliance with coding standards. Its extensive community and open-source roots contribute to its accessibility, while robust dashboards facilitate code quality monitoring. Despite its strengths, feedback suggests enhancing analysis speed, better integration with DevOps tools, and refining the user interface. Users also point to the need for handling false positives effectively and expanding on AI-based features for dynamic code analysis.

What are SonarQube's main features?

Multi-language Support: Broad compatibility with diverse programming languages
Custom Coding Rules: Flexible customization of coding standards
Quality Gates: Set thresholds for maintaining coding standards
Vulnerability Identification: Detects security and performance issues
Integration with CI/CD: Streamlines quality checks in development workflows
Open Source Access: Supported by an active developer community
Technical Debt Tracking: Identifies and manages coding inefficiencies

What benefits should users expect?

Enhanced Code Quality: Improve code reliability and maintainability
Security Assurance: Identify and mitigate potential vulnerabilities
Reduced Technical Debt: Streamline the process of managing poor coding practices
Development Efficiency: Facilitates continuous integration and delivery processes
Community Support: Leverages an active network for continual improvements

In industries like finance and healthcare, SonarQube aids in obtaining regulatory compliance through rigorous code quality assessments. It is implemented to enhance cybersecurity by identifying potential vulnerabilities, while ensuring code meets the stringent standards demanded in these fields. As part of a broader development ecosystem, its integration in CI/CD pipelines ensures smooth and efficient software delivery, catering to phases from code inception to deployment, effectively supporting large-scale and critical software applications.

SonarSource Sàrl

Sample Customers

ServiceMaster, Saltworks, SAP

Information Not Available

Buyer's Guide

Fortify Application Defender vs. SonarQube

December 2025

Free Report: Fortify Application Defender vs. SonarQube

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