GitHub Code Scanning vs SonarQube Cloud (formerly SonarCloud) comparison

GitHub and Sonar are both solutions in the Static Application Security Testing (SAST) category. GitHub is ranked #16 with an average rating of 8.5, while Sonar is ranked #10 with an average rating of 8.1. GitHub holds a 1.5% mindshare in SAST, compared to Sonar’s 4.2% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of GitHub users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Sonar users who would recommend it.

GitHub Code Scanning

Read 6 GitHub Code Scanning reviews

1,145 Views
1,088 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

SonarQube Cloud (formerly S...

Read 16 SonarQube Cloud (formerly SonarCloud) reviews

6,912 Views
6,843 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

GitHub Code Scanning

SonarQube Cloud (formerly S...

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 15, 2025

SonarQube Cloud and GitHub Code Scanning compete in the code analysis space. SonarQube Cloud is favored for its comprehensive features, while GitHub Code Scanning excels due to its seamless integration capabilities.

Features: SonarQube Cloud is valued for code inspection, addressing technical debt, and identifying security vulnerabilities, particularly for Java applications. It integrates well with CI/CD tools and offers a user-friendly interface. GitHub Code Scanning simplifies versioning through GitHub, provides static code analysis identifying vulnerabilities, and enhances code quality through automation features. The ease of providing AI functionalities and metric dashboards is also notable.

Room for Improvement: SonarQube Cloud could improve by reducing setup complexity and enhancing documentation, especially for CI/CD integrations. Additionally, addressing false positives in large organizations and simplifying integration would be beneficial. GitHub Code Scanning could expand its feature set to provide more detailed reporting and improve handling of code vulnerabilities at a deeper level. The pricing model could be reviewed for more attractive initial adoption cost, and there could be finer control over scanning functionalities.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SonarQube Cloud offers straightforward deployment through its cloud-native architecture, providing responsive customer support. GitHub Code Scanning benefits from integration with GitHub, making deployment simple for users already on GitHub, and leveraging existing infrastructure for customer support.

Pricing and ROI: SonarQube Cloud offers competitive pricing and strong ROI through its broad feature set, providing more upfront value for new users. GitHub Code Scanning, although higher in initial cost, offers long-term value to existing GitHub users due to its integration, justifying the investment for those leveraging GitHub's broader ecosystem.

To learn more, read our detailed GitHub Code Scanning vs. SonarQube Cloud (formerly SonarCloud) Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

GitHub Code Scanning vs. SonarQube Cloud (formerly SonarCloud)

September 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

GitHub Code Scanning

Ranking in Static Application Security Testing (SAST)

16th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

SonarQube Cloud (formerly S...

Ranking in Static Application Security Testing (SAST)

10th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the Static Application Security Testing (SAST) category, the mindshare of GitHub Code Scanning is 1.5%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SonarQube Cloud (formerly SonarCloud) is 4.2%, down from 6.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Static Application Security Testing (SAST) Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
SonarQube Cloud (formerly SonarCloud)	4.2%
GitHub Code Scanning	1.5%
Other	94.3%

Static Application Security Testing (SAST)

Featured Reviews

VishalSingh

Consulting & Solutions, BA/BD in Enterprise IT on Open Source, Red Hat & EDB at KEEN AND ABLE COMPUTERS PVT LTD

Traverses the entire network, scanning every system to determine which ports are open

You can use the tool locally on your system or in the cloud. I rate it a nine out of ten. It's a very good tool for people who want to start using GitHubCode Scanning, especially for software development or team collaboration. GitHubCode Scanning allows teams to collaborate by uploading files to repositories. For example, if someone is developing an application, they can host the code on GitHub Code Scanning. Other developers can then download the code for testing purposes. If bugs are found, fixes can be applied using the GitHub Code Scanningrepository, and everyone on the team can see the changes. Software developers often use GitHub Code Scanning for version control, and it's essential for CI/CD pipelines to work.

Read full review

Archana Verma

Security Analyst at Dover Corporation

Provides valuable insights on code vulnerabilities and integrates seamlessly with CI/CD pipelines

I find SonarQube Cloud to be very user-friendly with an easy-to-use interface. It provides detailed code smell reports and insights on hotspots, which can later represent security vulnerabilities. It gives precise reports compared to Coverity and has a slightly lower number of false positives. It is integrated easily with the CI/CD pipeline, saving time and cost. It provides information on upcoming vulnerability details and loopholes that might turn into vulnerabilities.

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 use GitHub Code Scanning mostly for source code management."

"The static code analysis capability in GitHub Code Scanning is a very powerful feature, providing the ability to identify vulnerabilities and ensure code quality."

"GitHub Code Scanning has positively impacted my organization as it helps us recognize errors and avoid many later issues which may arise."

"The solution helps identify vulnerabilities by understanding how ports communicate with applications running on a system. Ports are like house numbers; to visit someone's house, you must know their number. Similarly, ports are used to communicate with applications. For example, if you want to use an HTTP web server, you must use port 80. It is the port on which the web application or your server listens for incoming requests."

"GitHub Code Spaces brings significant value with its simplicity and ease of use."

"It's very scalable, very easy to handle, and very intuitive."

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

"The reports from SonarCloud are very good."

"The most valuable features of SonarCloud are the ability to discover vulnerabilities, security weak points, security hotspots, and all the feedback that comes into the feature branch. You can deploy the code with the security, you can eliminate the problem at the developer level rather than identifying the problem in the productions."

"The solution can be installed locally."

"The solution provides continuous code analysis which has improved the quality of our code. It can raise alarms on vulnerabilities with immediate reports on the dashboard. Few things are false positives and we can customize the rules."

"Its dashboard provides a unified view of various code quality metrics, including code duplication, unit test coverage, and security hotspots."

"The SaaS solution for checking code without execution and dealing with security issues is valuable."

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

More SonarQube Cloud (formerly SonarCloud) pros

Cons

"GitHub Code Scanning should add more templates."

"When running code scans, GitHub Code Scanning provides recommendations for probable fixes. However, integrating a feature where developers receive real-time highlights of vulnerabilities when checking in or merging a PR would be beneficial."

"At times it becomes very annoying as it highlights certain things which are intuitive. They require code coverage for those aspects as an extra overhead."

"One area for improvement could be the ability to have an AI system digest the reports generated from code scanning and provide a summary. Currently, the reports can be extensive, and users may overlook details, such as outdated libraries, which could be highlighted for attention."

"Reporting features are missing in SonarCloud."

"CI/CD pipeline is part of a whole chain of design, development, and production, and it's becoming increasingly crucial to optimize the various tools across different stages. However, it's still a silo approach because the full integration is missing. This isn't just an issue with SonarCloud. It's a general problem with tooling."

"SonarCloud's UI needs enhancement."

"SonarQube Cloud could improve its vulnerability detection compared to Veracode. Additionally, it has fewer capabilities, which prompted us to use Veracode."

"SonarQube Cloud needs improvements in dynamic code analysis. Static code analysis is good, but the product lacks dynamic code scanning capabilities, an area where Veracode excels."

"I've been told by the developers that the solution is too limited. It's not testing enough within the containers."

"The solution needs to improve its customization and flexibility."

"The reports could improve by providing more information. We are not able to use the reports in our operation until they are improved. Additionally, if the vendor provided more customization capabilities it would be a benefit."

More SonarQube Cloud (formerly SonarCloud) cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The minimum pricing for the tool is five dollars a month."

"GitHub Code Scanning is a moderately priced solution."

"Previously, the pricing was 17,000 euros for five million lines analyzed. However, they now charge $15,000 per one million lines, significantly increasing the cost."

"The price of SonarCloud is not expensive, it goes by the lines of code. 1 million lines per code are approximately 4,000 USD per year. If you need 2 million lines of code you would double the annual cost."

"I rate the pricing a five out of ten."

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

"The current pricing is quite cheap."

"While not extremely cheap, it aligns well with market standards and offers good value."

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

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Government

Computer Software Company

17%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

Insurance Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	8
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	4

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about GitHub Code Scanning?

We use GitHub Code Scanning mostly for source code management.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for GitHub Code Scanning?

The organization pays for the license of GitHub Code Scanning, but specific price details are unknown.

See all answers

What needs improvement with GitHub Code Scanning?

In my opinion, areas of GitHub Code Scanning that could be improved include that a few things are not visible to us, such as where it stores data and which path. There is a separate team for that w...

See all answers

What do you like most about SonarCloud?

Recently, they introduced support for mono reports and microservices, which is a noteworthy development as it provides a more detailed view of each service.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SonarCloud?

From my experience, SonarQube Cloud (formerly SonarCloud) is very expensive for small companies. It would be a great improvement if the price for smaller companies were reduced, as I do not have th...

See all answers

What needs improvement with SonarCloud?

Sometimes, there are tracking issues. It has its own graphical GUI where we can track everything. Since most of our projects are open source, there are multiple features which can be improved. For ...

See all answers

Comparisons

SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) vs GitHub Code Scanning

Compared 32% of the time

Coverity Static vs GitHub Code Scanning

Compared 25% of the time

Aikido Security vs GitHub Code Scanning

Compared 10% of the time

HCL AppScan vs GitHub Code Scanning

Compared 8% of the time

OWASP Zap vs GitHub Code Scanning

Compared 6% of the time

More GitHub Code Scanning Competitors

SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) vs SonarQube Cloud (formerly SonarCloud)

Compared 38% of the time

Snyk vs SonarQube Cloud (formerly SonarCloud)

Compared 11% of the time

Veracode vs SonarQube Cloud (formerly SonarCloud)

Compared 6% of the time

Semgrep vs SonarQube Cloud (formerly SonarCloud)

Compared 6% of the time

DeepSource vs SonarQube Cloud (formerly SonarCloud)

Compared 2% of the time

More SonarQube Cloud (formerly SonarCloud) Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

GitHub Code Scanning

September 2025

Download GitHub Code Scanning product report

Buyer's Guide

SonarQube Cloud (formerly SonarCloud)

August 2025

SonarQube Cloud (formerly SonarCloud) report

Download SonarQube Cloud (formerly SonarCloud) product report

Overview

Code scanning is a feature that you use to analyze the code in a GitHub repository to find security vulnerabilities and coding errors. Any problems identified by the analysis are shown in GitHub.

GitHub

SonarQube Cloud offers static code analysis and application security testing, seamlessly integrating into CI/CD pipelines. It's a vital tool for identifying vulnerabilities and ensuring code quality before deployment.

SonarQube Cloud is widely used for its ability to integrate with tools like GitHub, Jenkins, and Bitbucket, providing critical feedback at the pull request level. It's designed to help organizations maintain clean code by acting as a quality gate. This service supports development methodologies including sprints and Kanban for ongoing vulnerability management. While appreciated for its dashboard and integration capabilities, some users find initial setup challenging and note the need for enhanced documentation. The recent addition of mono reports and microservices support offers deeper insights into security and code quality, though container testing limitations and false positives are noted drawbacks. Manual intervention is sometimes required to address detailed reporting, with external tools being necessary for comprehensive analysis. Notifications for larger teams during serious issues and streamlined integration of new features are also areas of improvement.

What are the key features of SonarQube Cloud?

Vulnerability Detection: Identifies potential security threats within code.
Security Hotspots: Highlights sections of the code that require closer inspection.
Feedback on Feature Branches: Enables early detection and resolution of quality issues.
No Maintenance: Ensures focus remains on development rather than tool upkeep.
Mono and Multi-Reports: Offers diverse insights into code quality.

What benefits should users look for?

Integration Ease: Seamlessly connects with popular development platforms.
Continuous Code Analysis: Provides consistent feedback to improve code standards.
Unified Quality View: Dashboard offers a comprehensive look at code metrics.
Security Insights: Detailed information on vulnerabilities and their impact.

In specific industries, SonarQube Cloud finds application in finance and healthcare where code integrity and security are paramount. It allows teams to identify critical vulnerabilities early and ensures that software development aligns with industry regulations and standards. By continuously analyzing code, it aids organizations in deploying secure and reliable applications, fostering trust and compliance.

Sonar

Buyer's Guide

GitHub Code Scanning vs. SonarQube Cloud (formerly SonarCloud)

September 2025

Free Report: GitHub Code Scanning vs. SonarQube Cloud (formerly SonarCloud)

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