SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) vs Synopsys Defensics comparison

The compared Sonar and Black Duck solutions aren't in the same category. Sonar is ranked #1 in AS , with an average rating of 8.3, and holds a 23.5% mindshare in the category. Black Duck is ranked #5 in FTT , and holds a 23.1% mindshare. Additionally, 81% of Sonar users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Black Duck users who would recommend it.

SonarQube Server (formerly ...

Read 116 SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) reviews

30,422 Views
22,349 Comparison Views

81% willing to recommend

Synopsys Defensics

Read 4 Synopsys Defensics reviews

116 Views
25 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

SonarQube Server (formerly ...

Synopsys Defensics

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) and Synopsys Defensics based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Sonar, Veracode, Checkmarx and others in Application Security Tools.

To learn more, read our detailed Application Security Tools Report (Updated: June 2025).

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Application Security Tools

June 2025

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Helped 856,873 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

SonarQube Server (formerly ...

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

116

Ranking in other categories

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

Synopsys Defensics

Average Rating

8.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Fuzz Testing Tools (5th)

Mindshare comparison

While both are Quality Assurance solutions, they serve different purposes. SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) is designed for Application Security Tools and holds a mindshare of 23.5%, down 26.8% compared to last year.
Synopsys Defensics, on the other hand, focuses on Fuzz Testing Tools, holds 23.1% mindshare, up 14.9% since last year.

Application Security Tools

Fuzz Testing Tools

Featured Reviews

Sthembiso Zondi

Head of Software Engineering at ronaldmariah@gmail.com

Consistent improvements in code quality and security with effective integration and reliable technical support

The features of SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) that I find most useful are the suggestions received from reviewing the code. When they review the code, they provide suggestions on how to fix it, and we find those very useful from a development perspective. We use SonarQube Server's (formerly SonarQube) centralized management and visualization of code quality metrics on the dashboard because that's the executive dashboard that we send to the executives to show where we are in terms of quality, security, and where the company can improve. We use that for organizational improvement purposes. The ability to tailor metrics tracking in SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) has been beneficial to my team. There are team-specific dashboards which are related to specific repositories they utilize, and we have that aggregative dashboard that shows the whole organization's performance. We can drill down per specific repository, which makes it easier for the team to improve specific things.

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Sarath Kumar Choday

Senior Technical Lead at HCL Technologies

Product security tests for switches and router sections

Codenomicon Defensics should be more advanced for the testing sector. It should be somewhat easy and flexible to install. What I see in the documentation isn't that. Even if something doesn't malfunction, sometimes it is hard to install and execute. The product needs video documentation. This would help a lot more.

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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

"It is working fine. It provides a good value for money."

"I like that it's easy to navigate not just in terms of code findings but you can actually see them in the context of your source code because it gives you a copy of your code with the items that it found and highlights them. You can see it directly in your code, so you can easily go back and make the corrections in the code. It basically finds the problems for you and tells you where they are."

"SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) is very stable."

"We consider it a handy tool that helps to resolve our issues immediately."

"All the features of the solution are quite good."

"It helps our developers work more efficiently as we can identify things in a code prior to it being pushed to where it needs to go."

"It provides you with many features, as it does with the premium model, but there are still extra features that can be purchased if needed."

"It assists during the development with SonarLint and helps the developer to change his approach or rather improve his coding pattern or style. That's one advantage I've seen. Another advantage is that we can customize the rules."

More SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) pros

"Whatever the test suit they give, it is intelligent. It will understand the protocol and it will generate the test cases based on the protocol: protocol, message sequence, protocol, message structure... Because of that, we can eliminate a lot of unwanted test cases, so we can execute the tests and complete them very quickly."

"We have found multiple issues in our embedded system network protocols, related to buffer overflow. We have reduced some of these issues."

"The product is related to US usage with TLS contact fees, i.e. how more data center connections will help lower networking costs."

Cons

"I think SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) should improve by integrating a new feature that includes AI. As soon as I see that they've got a new feature that integrates AI that is not as generative as other GenAI platforms that actually generate the code and help developers develop faster, I believe that capability is lacking."

"Code security scanning could be improved."

"You may need to purchase add-ons to get the useability you desire."

"Code security could be better. They are already focusing on it, but I see a lot of improvement opportunities over there. I can see a lot of false positives in terms of security. They need to make the tests more accurate so that the false positives are not detected so frequently. It would also help if they provided us with an installer."

"I would like to see improvements in defining the quality sets of rules and the quality to ensure code with low-performance does not end up in production."

"During the setup process, we only had one issue related to the number of available files. To perform the analysis, you have quite a lot of available file handles, so we had to increase that limit."

"There could be better integration with other products."

"Having performance regression would be a helpful add on or ability to be able to do during the scan."

More SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) cons

"Sometimes, when we are testing embedded devices, when we trigger the test cases, the target will crash immediately. It is very difficult for us to identify the root cause of the crash because they do not provide sophisticated tools on the target side. They cover only the client-side application... They do not have diagnostic tools for the target side. Rather, they have them but they are very minimal and not very helpful."

"Codenomicon Defensics should be more advanced for the testing sector. It should be somewhat easy and flexible to install."

"It does not support the complete protocol stack. There are some IoT protocols that are not supported and new protocols that are not supported."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"People can try the free licenses and later can seek buying plugins/support, etc. once they started liking it."

"We are using the free, unlicensed version."

"I am satisfied with the pricing."

"We're using an older version because it is the open-source flavor of it and we can continue using it at no cost. We're not paying any licensing at all, which was another factor in choosing this route so that we can learn and grow with it and not be committed to licenses and other similar things. If we choose to get something else, we have to relearn, but we don't have to relicense. Basically, we're paying no license costs."

"We're using their free Community Edition version."

"We use the solution free of cost."

"This is open source."

"It's a bit expensive for us. The currency rate of the dollar is a problem but it may be fine for other countries."

More SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) pricing and cost advice

"Licensing is a bit expensive."

See which vendors are best for you

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

16%

Computer Software Company

15%

Manufacturing Company

13%

Government

Computer Software Company

21%

Manufacturing Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

University

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

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

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Comparisons

Coverity vs SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube)

Compared 13% of the time

Checkmarx One vs SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube)

Compared 12% of the time

GitHub Advanced Security vs SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube)

Compared 11% of the time

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

Compared 7% of the time

Veracode vs SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube)

Compared 7% of the time

More SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) Competitors

Snyk vs Synopsys Defensics

Compared 12% of the time

HCL AppScan vs Synopsys Defensics

Compared 11% of the time

Veracode vs Synopsys Defensics

Compared 11% of the time

Coverity vs Synopsys Defensics

Compared 10% of the time

Ixia BreakingPoint vs Synopsys Defensics

Compared 9% of the time

More Synopsys Defensics Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube)

May 2025

SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) report

Download SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) product report

Buyer's Guide

GitLab vs. Synopsys Defensics

April 2025

Download Synopsys Defensics product report

Also Known As

Sonar

Defensics, Codenomicon Defensics

Interactive Demo

Sonar

Demo not available

Black Duck

Overview

SonarQube Server enhances code quality and security via static code analysis. It detects vulnerabilities, improves standards, and reduces technical debt, integrating into CI/CD pipelines.

SonarQube Server is a comprehensive tool for enhancing code quality and security. It offers static code analysis to identify vulnerabilities, improve coding standards, and reduce technical debt. By integrating into CI/CD pipelines, it provides automated checks for adherence to best practices. Organizations use it for code inspection, security testing, and compliance, ensuring development environments with better maintainability and fewer issues.

What are the key features of SonarQube Server?

Support for 20+ languages: Extensive programming language support suitable for diverse coding environments.
Custom coding rules: Allows for tailored rule sets to match specific coding standards.
Flexible quality gates: Define criteria for code acceptance at various intervals.
CI/CD integration: Seamless integration with Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment tools.
Rich interface: User-friendly dashboard with detailed visual insights.

What benefits should users expect from SonarQube Server?

Improved code quality: Enhanced analysis contributes to fewer bugs and improved coding practices.
Security enhancements: Identifies and mitigates security vulnerabilities pre-emptively.
Maintainability: Reduces technical debt, yielding long-term development efficiency.
Customizable: Flexibility in configuration aligns with specific project needs.

Many industries implement SonarQube Server to uphold coding standards, maintain security protocols, and streamline their software development lifecycle. In sectors like finance and healthcare, adhering to regulations and ensuring reliable software is critical, making SonarQube Server invaluable. It is often integrated into CI/CD pipelines, ensuring that code changes meet set standards before deployment. This approach enhances productivity and maintains compliance with industry-specific requirements.

Sonar

Defensics® fuzz testing is a comprehensive, powerful, and automated black box solution that enables organizations to effectively and efficiently discover and remediate security weaknesses in software. By taking a systematic and intelligent approach to negative testing, Defensics allows organizations to ensure software security without compromising on product innovation, increasing time to market, or inflating operational costs.

Black Duck

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

Coriant, CERT-FI, Next Generation Networks

Buyer's Guide

Application Security Tools

June 2025

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