We are using the solution for code quality and security.
Technology Manager at Publicis Sapient
Supports multiple program languages, highly scalable, and has open-source version
Pros and Cons
- "The solution has a wide variety of features and an open-source community that you are able to learn Java, JavaScript, or any other programing language."
- "There are times that we have the database crash. However, this might be an issue with how we have configured it and not a software issue. Apart from this, I do not see any issues with the solution."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
The solution has a wide variety of features and an open-source community that you are able to learn Java, JavaScript, or any other programing language. The quality profile rules that it provides based on the architect are set across the board, this provides continuity. Being able to fix all the application vulnerabilities before it reaches production is a huge benefit.
What needs improvement?
There are times that we have the database crash. However, this might be an issue with how we have configured it and not a software issue. Apart from this, I do not see any issues with the solution.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for approximately eight years.
Buyer's Guide
SonarQube
October 2025
Learn what your peers think about SonarQube. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: October 2025.
873,003 professionals have used our research since 2012.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability depends on the use case. You cannot install it with minimal resources and expect it to run thousands of jobs. It is scalable based on your environment. How big is your project? How many APIs do you want to scan? How many APIs per minute, etc. Based on that information you need to first decide upfront how much memory or how much storage you want to give to it. You need to have clear data with you and then use the resources to design accordingly. I think it is highly scalable and can operate seamlessly if you give it the environment that is sufficient. You cannot expect magic from it.
We have some projects that have 150 users with ten teams using the solution.
How are customer service and support?
We had to contact technical support back several years ago because we had an issue with one of the new SQL plugins which ended up being resolved. The support is not required anymore because they have very good documentation that meets our needs.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I do not know the price of the solution since I have not been involved in purchasing licenses. However, this solution requires a license and we have enterprise-level licenses for our organization and for our client.
The beauty of this solution is the free open-source version is capable enough in doing pretty much what an enterprise-level version can do. The enterprise-level has only a few more options, such as better reporting and generating PDFs. If you have a small-scale project or if you do not have a high budget, I think open-source will do wonders.
What other advice do I have?
For those wanting to implement this solution, I would suggest it is the best tool. It has a big open-source community where you learn any language. There are many extra plugins you can apply to scan in your code. It has support for Android, iOS, COBOL, Java, JavaScript databases, and more. It has everything you need.
I rate SonarQube a nine out of ten.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
Digital Solutions Architect at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Effective security scanning, uncomplicated installation , and reliable
Pros and Cons
- "The fact that the solution does security scanning is valuable."
- "Having performance regression would be a helpful add on or ability to be able to do during the scan."
What is our primary use case?
We are a $4 billion valuation large company and we use the solution for status security, scanning, and code quality. I am currently in the process of building a pipeline for one of my customers and for that we are utilizing this solution for the static analysis.
What is most valuable?
The fact that the solution does security scanning is valuable. This is primarily why we use it. For code quality, we could utilize other tools, such as unit test coverage, which it gives you too, but having a more comprehensive tool is useful.
What needs improvement?
Having a tool that is comprehensive in nature is very useful because otherwise, we have to run through multiple tools in order to get the entire viewpoint of a particular set of code. For example, we use SonarQube in combination with Nexus, which is another product that gives us some other information. I guess when it comes to the gamut of things that we are looking for including static code quality, static testing, and dynamic testing of security. Having performance regression would be a helpful add on or ability to be able to do during the scan.
In an upcoming release, I would like to see the dynamic security testing feature available. I would like to point out that they could already offer this feature but I have not been that deep into the solution to know yet.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for approximately one year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I have not run into any bugs or glitches. However, I have only been using it for a short time.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The pipeline that I am currently building is being used by the platforms team, which is approximately three people. We use the solution as part of the automated code review process. As far as a larger perspective of who is actually benefiting from it, the development team is about 35 people.
How are customer service and technical support?
I have not needed to use technical support.
How was the initial setup?
The set up was very easy.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend to those wanting to implement this solution to read the documentation, they are clear and easy to follow.
I rate SonarQube a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Private Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
Buyer's Guide
SonarQube
October 2025
Learn what your peers think about SonarQube. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: October 2025.
873,003 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Senior System Analyst at a non-profit with 10,001+ employees
Open-source, feature-rich, integrates well, and has good community support but the user experience could be better
Pros and Cons
- "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."
- "The security in SonarQube could be better."
What is most valuable?
There is a large support system in the community. When we have issues we can get answers quickly and easily.
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's very flexible.
I am from the application development team and for me, it is very good because it offers a lot of features in terms of code review, quality check, and more.
What needs improvement?
In discussions with the security team, there are many other products that are available that perform better. The security in SonarQube could be better.
SonarQube is more about the quality checks of the source code. It allows us to do a code review but it lacks security. It could perform better.
I would like to have better support for CI/CD as DevOps appliances, in terms of reporting on the issue and to be integrated with the pipeline.
It integrates well but there is always room in this area to improve and to provide reports on the results.
The user experience for the on-premises installation, creating a new project, defining the quality gate, and the user interface could be improved. It wasn't a simple experience.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using SonarQube for six months. We implemented it in September of last year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is very stable. We are still new to this product and learning, but there are times where SonarQube disconnects from the server with no alert or notification, and we have to run it again.
It can be managed by running different scripts. From time to time we have claims that SonarQube is not running on the server and discovered that the server was restarted but SonarQube did not restart.
I don't know if it is a flaw in the product itself or if we can manage it from our infrastructure.
It's stable but could be improved.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I believe that it is scalable, but this is an area that we have not yet explored.
I know that there is an option to add a new rule. For example, if we are creating an application using Java, there is a list of predefined rules to check the quality against.
It's expandable at least in terms of code quality checks.
For now, I am the only user of this solution.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup wasn't straightforward, but still, it was manageable.
This is an area that can also be improved to make it easier to install and setup. There are many other products that are easy to set up and install.
What about the implementation team?
I called an expert or a technical person who could work on it and manage it.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
SonarQube is a free, open-source product.
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.
What other advice do I have?
We will be using this solution for the next year, but we are considering migrating to the cloud.
From my experience, I would rate SonarQube a seven out of ten.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
IT Systems Architect at Banco Ripley
Open-source, secure static testing, but cannot be used for dynamic testing
Pros and Cons
- "It provides the security that is required from a solution for financial businesses."
- "We found a solution with dynamic testing, and are looking to find a solution that can be used for both types of testing."
What is our primary use case?
We use SonarQube for testing and quality assurance. We use this in banks for testing.
We also use SonarQube for security static testing.
What is most valuable?
It provides the security that is required from a solution for financial businesses.
What needs improvement?
SonarQube is used for static testing, not for dynamic. We found a solution with dynamic testing, and are looking to find a solution that can be used for both types of testing.
I would like to see software included that can be used with Waterfall projects.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We try to primarily use open-source solutions. The organization tries not to spend money for the moment. Many clients do not want to pay for solutions during this time, especially in the case of products that are expensive.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We have partnered with B2B American to help with the purchasing of the license.
We have just been approved to purchase SonarQube Developer Edition.
We have a license with 125,000 lines of code. We did not purchase a lot of lines but it is specific to our code environment.
It's an open-source solution.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We are currently evaluating other solutions that are open-source. The company is trying to reduce the amount of money spent on solutions.
We are looking for the newest technologies but the biggest stopper for us is money.
What other advice do I have?
For the units of architecture, we have tried to find the newest technology that would benefit the manifest of their orientation.
It has been very difficult. Last year many projects stopped.
I would rate SonarQube a six out of ten.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Senior Software Engineering Manager at Hill
A stable solution for analysis and security vulnerability checking
Pros and Cons
- "It is a very good tool for analysis and security vulnerability checking."
- "The scanning part could be improved in SonarQube. We have used Coverity for scanning, and we have the critical issues reported by Coverity. When we used SonarQube for scanning and looked at the results, it seems that some of them have incorrect input. This part can be improved for C and C++ languages."
What is our primary use case?
We use SonarQube to scan our security protection.
What is most valuable?
It is a very good tool for analysis and security vulnerability checking.
What needs improvement?
The scanning part could be improved in SonarQube. We have used Coverity for scanning, and we have the critical issues reported by Coverity. When we used SonarQube for scanning and looked at the results, it seems that some of them have incorrect input. This part can be improved for C and C++ languages.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for a couple of weeks.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We haven't evaluated its scalability.
How are customer service and technical support?
I just use our internal IT to get support for SonarQube. That is enough for me.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We were previously using Coverity. We used it for three years or so.
How was the initial setup?
We just use the Enterprise SonarQube instance provided by our company.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend this solution. I would rate SonarQube an eight out of ten.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
CTO at a computer software company with 11-50 employees
An open-source platform for the continuous inspection of code quality
Pros and Cons
- "The good thing with SonarQube is it covers a lot of issues, it's a very robust framework."
- "The exporting capabilities could be improved. Currently, exporting is fully dependent on the SonarQube environment."
What is our primary use case?
There are two versions: a free, open-source community version, and a subscription-based version.We use the community version, not the enterprise version.
We are a very small organization. In total, there are four of us who use this solution. We will keep using SonarQube, with some additions, in the future.
Firstly, we use SonarQube to evaluate code for M&A projects. Secondly, we use it to detect vulnerabilities while performing security audits. Our third use case is the detection of violation of programming practices towards code refactoring and code maintenance.
What needs improvement?
The results of exporting capability could be improved. Currently, exporting is a bit messy and fully dependent on the SonarQube environment. Sonar Qube offers REST API and you could export the results programmatically, but the process is quite slow and limited. You could extract the maximum 10000 results per query, which increases the overall execution process tremendously. I guess the majority of the users are based on Sonar Qube presentation capabilities, which is very restrictive for some use cases.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using SonarQube, every day, for more than two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
SonarQube is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I wouldn't say that isn't fully scalable. It's damn slow. It takes a lot of time parsing an average size codebase. If you'd like to scale up and deploy it on a cloud environment, it's a completely different scale of difficulty. We have done this but it's really hard.
How are customer service and technical support?
As we are using the community version, there is no technical support.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have used a wide variety of tools.SonarQube covers a wide variety of issues and it is well well designed robust framework.
How was the initial setup?
To be honest, for me, the initial setup was a piece of cake; however, other colleagues and clients of mine have said that it's damn difficult to install it and extract the results, at least the first time. Initially, It took me some time to go through the process. It is not straightforward at all, it's quite complicated — it's a tool developed by developers for developers. If you are not a core developer, and I am not, it's super difficult to figure out the installation process thanks to the multiple steps involved. The autogenerated script, isn't functional, it needs some tweaking.
My clients report that it takes about a week to install it properly, and you need about two weeks more to configure it, let alone the performance optimization.
The installation should be much simpler. There are competitive tools that come with a self-contained installation and configuration process. It requires a time investment to configure it properly. . In short, it should come with a self-contained functional configuration set.
Overall, the initial setup should be easier.
What about the implementation team?
Currently, I could configure SonarQube by myself. Only one person, knowledgeable enough, is required to deploy it.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Unless you use a tech stack that is not supported, use the community version; there are no hidden costs or licensing required.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Yes, we have evaluated plenty of alternatives nothing really comparable.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend this solution to others. It easily outperforms other static code tools — It's perfect as a static code analysis tool.
Overall, on a scale from one to ten, I would give SonarQube a rating of eight.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Chief Solutions Officer at CleverIT B.V.
Easy to deploy and applicable for various uses
Pros and Cons
- "It is an easy tool that you can deploy and configure. After that you can measure the history of your obligation and integrate it with other tools like GitLab or GitHub or Azure DevOps to do quality code analysis."
- "In terms of what can be improved, the areas that need more attention in the solution are its architecture and development."
What is our primary use case?
I am now working in a consultancy company and I work with different clients in different industries. For this reason I implement, for example, a delivery pipeline with the process whereby we need to validate the quality gate of the quality code. Meaning, the developer creates the unit testing and the code coverage, but grants the code coverage for a specific person. In other cases, we used to see what the technical depth was to see if if there are any bugs in the applications - the web application, mobile application and different languages, like, C-Sharp, JavaScript or Java, et cetera.
We deploy SonarQube on-premise on a Linux server and our pipelines were created with GitLab and Azure DevOps. Meaning that Azure DevOps and GitLab are the tools that do the build and release process.
We use Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform a little.
What is most valuable?
In terms of most valuable feature, when you compute SonarQube you need to install an extension. This extension depends on the version control. You need to install different extensions or work with a specific language to use as the extensions, all of which I work in with different projects.
What needs improvement?
In terms of what can be improved, the areas that need more attention in the solution are its architecture and development.
Additionally, the QA team also needs work in different aspects. When you think about the support area - when the support team has an incident they need to do a hostage. When they do that they do a commit in the version control. These commits trigger a new build process and this process needs validation from SonarQube because we need to validate the quality of the software product for different cases and different aspects.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using SonarQube for about four years, with different versions.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
SonarQube works very well, but I prefer SonarCloud because the tendency of the technology world is to think less about the structure and more about the process and the value that this process provides.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
In terms of scalability, with proper configuration and deployment, there is higher availability.
I have companies with 20 users and I have customers with 100 users. We work with a big company in Chile and in some cases national companies, in other cases international companies. With the international companies the majority of them are more than 1,000 users.
I have a technical DevOps team. The majority of the time we implement the trial version so that we show the value of the tool to our clients and they understand about the pricing and the cost of the tool.
It depends on the maturity of the company. In some case, we have companies that don't know about SonarQube so we deploy it to show the value. In other cases we have clients with no SonarQube experience but they know the quality of the codes. In this case we provide a license. In the majority of the cases we provide the license or the subscription for SonarCloud. Other clients get access to SonarQube directly.
How are customer service and technical support?
I have never used technical support from the SonarQube support team.
I work very well with the documentation you find on the internet.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward the majority of time. It takes about two hours.
What about the implementation team?
I work in a consultancy company so we do the implementation. We deploy for our customers.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We did evaluate other options, for example Q1 and Veracode. In specific cases we created different aspects with different tools and these were the top peers that we would compare it to - Q1 and Veracode.
In terms of differences, Veracode is used more for the security of the development and you can configure the gates while thinking about software security and things like that. With Q1, the difference is the type of the license. In Q1 you have projects and you pay for the line. I know that SonarQube was changing the licensing plan. Right now, before you pay for a license, you pay for fair lines that you extend. This is the difference between these three tools.
What other advice do I have?
I do recommend SonarQube because it is an easy tool that you can deploy and configure. After that you can measure the history of your obligation and integrate it with other tools like GitLab or GitHub or Azure DevOps to do quality code analysis.
On a scale of one to ten, I would give SonarQube an eight. To give it a 10 and not an eight, I would like to see architecture development and the QA area improved.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Reseller
Senior System Analyst at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
User-friendly, easy to access, and it has good training documentation
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable features are that it is user-friendly, easy to access, and they provide good training files."
- "Monitoring is a feature that can be improved in the next version."
What is our primary use case?
We are using this solution for analyzing sales, profit, and FI documents. We are using the HR section as well.
How has it helped my organization?
SonarQube simplified some of the processes and made others more complex.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features are that it is user-friendly, easy to access, and they provide good training files. Ability to manage and customize reports. Sonar also models the relationship between packages and classes
What needs improvement?
It would be better if the users could have quick access to the features.
Monitoring is a feature that can be improved in the next version.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using SonarQube for three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
This solution is stable. Stability is not an issue for us.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It's scalable. Scaling is not a problem.
How are customer service and technical support?
Because of the sanctions in our country, we cannot contact technical support directly.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was straightforward. It was a normal installation.
It took approximately five days to deploy.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It's a bit expensive for us. The currency rate of the dollar is a problem but it may be fine for other countries.
This solution provides good features for users.
What other advice do I have?
Before implementing, they should have more knowledge about the performance, and the features. It will be helpful in learning the hardware also.
If you have good resources for the performance, you won't worry about it. It will also be dependent on your information, and how much knowledge you have.
I would rate SonarQube an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Buyer's Guide
Download our free SonarQube Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros
sharing their opinions.
Updated: October 2025
Product Categories
Application Security Tools Static Application Security Testing (SAST) Software Development AnalyticsPopular Comparisons
GitLab
Checkmarx One
Veracode
Coverity Static
CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security
Mend.io
GitHub Advanced Security
OpenText Core Application Security
OWASP Zap
Acunetix
Sonatype Lifecycle
HCL AppScan
PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional
Qualys Web Application Scanning
Buyer's Guide
Download our free SonarQube Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros
sharing their opinions.
Quick Links
Learn More: Questions:
- Is SonarQube the best tool for static analysis?
- Which gives you more for your money - SonarQube or Veracode?
- What Is The Biggest Difference Between Fortify on Demand And SonarQube?
- What is the biggest difference between Checkmarx and SonarQube?
- Checkmarx vs SonarQube; SonarQube interoperability with Checkmarx or Veracode
- How does SonarQube instance relate to the license?
- Which software is ideal for code quality and security?
- What is the difference between Coverity and SonarQube?
- What is the biggest difference between Coverity and SonarQube?
- How would you decide between Coverity and Sonarqube?


















