HCL AppScan vs Polyspace Code Prover comparison

HCLSoftware and MathWorks are both solutions in the Application Security Tools category. HCLSoftware is ranked #15 with an average rating of 8.3, while MathWorks is ranked #23 with an average rating of 7.7. HCLSoftware holds a 2.5% mindshare in AS, compared to MathWorks’s 1.4% mindshare. Additionally, 84% of HCLSoftware users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 85% of MathWorks users who would recommend it.

HCL AppScan

Read 43 HCL AppScan reviews

4,377 Views
3,151 Comparison Views

84% willing to recommend

Polyspace Code Prover

Read 7 Polyspace Code Prover reviews

2,275 Views
1,570 Comparison Views

85% willing to recommend

HCL AppScan

Polyspace Code Prover

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 8, 2024

HCL AppScan and Polyspace Code Prover are both important tools in the application security and code analysis category. HCL AppScan seems to have the upper hand in pricing and support, while Polyspace Code Prover has an advantage in features, making it a preferred choice despite its cost.

Features: HCL AppScan is known for comprehensive security testing capabilities, automated scanning, and ease of integration. It focuses on robust security for web and mobile applications. Polyspace Code Prover excels in static code analysis and its ability to detect run-time errors in advanced coding languages. It emphasizes verification at the code level for industries demanding high reliability.

Room for Improvement: HCL AppScan could enhance reporting features, optimize resource consumption during scans, and improve its scanning speed. Polyspace Code Prover users highlight the need for better code compatibility, the expansion of language support, and improved usability for non-technical users.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: HCL AppScan is known for straightforward deployment and a responsive support team, aiding users during installation. Polyspace Code Prover provides excellent customer service, though its setup is more complex and demands technical expertise.

Pricing and ROI: HCL AppScan offers competitive pricing with better perceived ROI due to affordability and strong support. Polyspace Code Prover, though more expensive, delivers valuable features essential for industries requiring rigorous code analysis, making the investment worthwhile for critical insights.

To learn more, read our detailed HCL AppScan vs. Polyspace Code Prover Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

HCL AppScan vs. Polyspace Code Prover

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

HCL AppScan

Ranking in Application Security Tools

15th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

5.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

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

Polyspace Code Prover

Ranking in Application Security Tools

23rd

Average Rating

7.2

Reviews Sentiment

2.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Application Security Tools category, the mindshare of HCL AppScan is 2.5%, down from 2.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Polyspace Code Prover is 1.4%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Security Tools Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
HCL AppScan	2.5%
Polyspace Code Prover	1.4%
Other	96.1%

Application Security Tools

Featured Reviews

Gladwin Christian

QA manager at SmartStream Technologies ltd.

A useful tool to scan applications that can be easily installed

Given that we have been using HCL AppScan for many years, I think the setup process is not difficult at all. Sometimes, some issues stop or prevent my company from moving forward with the product's setup phase. We have to call HCL's support team and engage in long discussions to smoothly carry out the setup phase. In general, the product's setup phase is not difficult in our company. The solution is deployed on an on-premises model. The licenses for the solution are available only on cloud deployments nowadays. The solution is already installed in our environment. Every time a new release or software comes out from HCL, our company does a scan, which takes maybe a day or two.

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Pradeep Panchakarla

Functional Safety Engineer at a manufacturing company with 5,001-10,000 employees

A reliable solution that provides excellent features and detects memory corruption

The run time analysis process must be improved. If we do not run with the main loop, it generates its own main and doesn’t allow developers to modify the execution sequences. The solution must provide more flexibility to the developers to manipulate the runtime analysis tools. The developer must be allowed to modify the main sequence. It will be very easy for them to test their use cases. Otherwise, Polyspace generates a random main file and executes all the functions randomly.

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

"AppScan is stable."

"Usually when we deploy the application, there is a process for ethical hacking. The main benefit is that, the ethical hacking is almost clean, every time. So it's less cost, less effort, less time to production."

"For me, as a manager, it was the ease of use. Inserting security into the development process is not normally an easy project to do. The ability for the developer to actually use it and get results and focuses, that's what counted."

"You can easily find particular features and functions through the UI."

"The reporting part is the most valuable feature."

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

"The solution offers services in a few specific development languages."

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

More HCL AppScan pros

"The product detects memory corruptions."

"The outputs are very reliable."

"Efficiency and speed are the advantages I see in Code Sonar over Polyspace Code Prover."

"Polyspace Code Prover has made me realize it differs from other static code analysis tools because it runs the code. So it's quite distinct in that aspect."

"Polyspace Code Prover is a very user-friendly tool."

"When we work on safety modules, it is mandatory to fulfill ISO 26262 compliance. Using Prover helps fulfill the standard on top of many other quality checks, like division by zero, data type casts, and null pointer dereferences."

Cons

"The dashboard, for AppScan or the Fortified fast tool, which we use needs to be improved."

"There are so many lines of code with so many different categories that I am likely to get lost. "

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

"In future releases, I would like to see more aggressive reports. I would also like to see less false positives."

"We would like to integrate with some of the other reporting tools that we're planning to use in the future."

"Sometimes it doesn't work so well."

"I would love to see more containers. Many of the tools are great, they require an amount of configuration, setup and infrastructure. If most the applications were in a container, I think everything would be a little bit faster, because all our clients are now using containers."

"They should have a better UI for dashboards."

More HCL AppScan cons

"Automation could be a challenge."

"I'd like the data to be taken from any format."

"One of the main disadvantages is the time it takes to initiate the first run."

"Because we had difficulties in efficiently integrating Polyspace Code Prover into our CI toolchain, these tests are mostly run manually and only occasionally."

"The tool has some stability issues."

"Using Code Prover on large applications crashes sometimes."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

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

"The solution is cheap."

"The price of HCL AppScan is okay, in my opinion. You just buy HCL AppScan and don't pay anything anymore, meaning it is just a one-time purchase."

"With the features, that they offer, and the support, they offer, AppScan pricing is on a higher level."

"The price is very expensive."

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

"The solution is moderately priced."

More HCL AppScan pricing and cost advice

"We use the paid version."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Government

10%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

39%

Computer Software Company

10%

Aerospace/Defense Firm

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	13
Midsize Enterprise	6
Large Enterprise	31

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	6

Questions from the Community

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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What do you like most about Polyspace Code Prover?

When we work on safety modules, it is mandatory to fulfill ISO 26262 compliance. Using Prover helps fulfill the standard on top of many other quality checks, like division by zero, data type casts,...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Polyspace Code Prover?

We use the paid version.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Polyspace Code Prover?

I'm still trying to use constraints with range propagation, but I can't get it to work properly, and I haven't found any documentation. It require support. There could be an issue with range propag...

See all answers

Comparisons

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OWASP Zap vs HCL AppScan

Compared 8% of the time

PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional vs HCL AppScan

Compared 7% of the time

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Coverity Static vs Polyspace Code Prover

Compared 29% of the time

SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) vs Polyspace Code Prover

Compared 19% of the time

Klocwork vs Polyspace Code Prover

Compared 18% of the time

CodeSonar vs Polyspace Code Prover

Compared 9% of the time

OpenText Core Application Security vs Polyspace Code Prover

Compared 6% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

HCL AppScan

September 2025

Download HCL AppScan product report

Buyer's Guide

Polyspace Code Prover

September 2025

Download Polyspace Code Prover product report

Also Known As

IBM Security AppScan, Rational AppScan, AppScan

No data available

Overview

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

Polyspace Code Prover is a sound static analysis tool that proves the absence of overflow, divide-by-zero, out-of-bounds array access, and certain other run-time errors in C and C++ source code. It produces results without requiring program execution, code instrumentation, or test cases. Polyspace Code Prover uses semantic analysis and abstract interpretation based on formal methods to verify software interprocedural, control, and data flow behavior. You can use it on handwritten code, generated code, or a combination of the two. Each operation is color-coded to indicate whether it is free of run-time errors, proven to fail, unreachable, or unproven.

MathWorks

Sample Customers

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

Alenia Aermacchi, CSEE Transport, Delphi Diesel Systems, EADS, Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety, Korean Air, KOSTAL, Miracor, NASA Ames Research Center

Buyer's Guide

HCL AppScan vs. Polyspace Code Prover

September 2025

Free Report: HCL AppScan vs. Polyspace Code Prover

Find out what your peers are saying about HCL AppScan vs. Polyspace Code Prover and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.

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