We are using SonarQube for scanning our services for issues as part of our IT department.
Senior Technical Architect at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
Effective vulnerability scanning, good support, and simple setup
Pros and Cons
- "SonarQube has a lot of value, it reviews the basic coding standards and security vulnerabilities of code that help to reduce issues."
- "SonarQube can improve by scanning the internal library which currently it does not do. We are looking for a solution for this."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
SonarQube has a lot of value, it reviews the basic coding standards and security vulnerabilities of code that help to reduce issues.
What needs improvement?
SonarQube can improve by scanning the internal library which currently it does not do. We are looking for a solution for this.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using SonarQube for approximately three years.
Buyer's Guide
SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube)
May 2025

Learn what your peers think about SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube). Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: May 2025.
856,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
SonarQube is a stable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I have found SonarQube to be stable. However, we have not tested it with more than one million lines of code.
We have a server that SonarQube is running on and we have approximately 50 people using it.
How are customer service and support?
We have used technical support in the past but not recently.
I would rate the support from SonarQube a four out of five.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have used Veracode previously.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward for SonarQube.
What about the implementation team?
We did the implementation in-house.
The DevOps team handles the maintenance of SonarQube.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We are using the Developer Edition and the cost is based on the amount of code that is being processed.
What other advice do I have?
If SonarQube meets the needs of your use case then I use it.
I rate SonarQube an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

Security Information Manager at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Reliable with a nice web interface but needs better reporting
Pros and Cons
- "The solution offers a very good community edition."
- "There isn't a very good enterprise report."
What is most valuable?
We find it very similar to Fortify and has the same advantages.
The web interface is very good.
We have found the solution to be stable.
The solution offers a very good community edition.
What needs improvement?
There isn't a very good enterprise report. They also do not have an application report. We'd like for them to work on this aspect.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've used the solution for three years. I've used it for a while now.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
In terms of stability, the solution is reliable and the performance is good. There are no bugs. It's not glitchy. It doesn't crash or freeze.
How are customer service and support?
I've never used technical support. I can't talk about how helpful they are, never spoken with them personally.
If I do need to troubleshoot, I tend to rely on the community and search for answers there.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We've also used Fortify.
How was the initial setup?
I didn't participate in the installation process. I can't speak to how easy or difficult the process was.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I use the community version of the product.
What other advice do I have?
We are a customer and an end-user.
I'd rate the solution at a seven out of ten. It's mostly reliable.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Buyer's Guide
SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube)
May 2025

Learn what your peers think about SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube). Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: May 2025.
856,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Staff DevOps Specialist at a computer software company with 201-500 employees
Greatly improves the quality, straightforward to use, and stable
Pros and Cons
- "My focus is mainly on the DevOps pipeline side of things, and from my perspective, the ease of use and configuration is valuable. It is pretty straightforward to take a deployment pipeline or CI/CD pipeline and integrate SonarQube into it."
- "A little bit more emphasis on security and a bit more security scanning features would be nice."
What is our primary use case?
It is mainly used as part of the CI/CD pipeline through Azure DevOps and Jenkins to do static code analysis.
We have the enterprise version. In terms of deployment, on-premise is the best description because they have their own cloud, but it is not a real cloud. It is like VMware.
How has it helped my organization?
In some instances, the project stakeholders were able to implement quality gate control for code coverage, security alerts, and things like that. It greatly improved the quality of the product. If our test code coverage is 80% and a person commits a change that brings the code coverage to below 80%, that code cannot be merged. We've been able to improve the quality of the products that we produce by using SonarQube. We are using it as a gate.
It is a great tool in a situation where you have a dynamic team, and you sometimes hire staff or subcontractors from other companies. It provided us with the ability to implement quality gates in our project. We could look at the data and see which developers were producing quality code and which developers were not too worried about the quality. It helped us out with our junior devs. I know of a few cases where having this system helped our junior devs in taking their skills one level up because we had set up a hard quality gate.
What is most valuable?
My focus is mainly on the DevOps pipeline side of things, and from my perspective, the ease of use and configuration is valuable. It is pretty straightforward to take a deployment pipeline or CI/CD pipeline and integrate SonarQube into it.
What needs improvement?
A little bit more emphasis on security and a bit more security scanning features would be nice.
It would also be nice if the discrepancy between the basic or free version and the enterprise version was less. In my opinion, some of the base functionality in the enterprise version should be in the basic version.
Currently, we have static code scanning, and we have the scanning of the Docker containers. It would be great if some sort of penetration testing could easily be implemented in SonarQube for deploying something and doing some basic security scans. Currently, we have to use third-party tools for that. If everything was all under one roof, it would be more comfortable, but I don't know if it is possible or feasible. It is a typical issue of centralization versus distribution. In our particular case, because we're using SonarQube for almost every other project, it would make sense, but that doesn't necessarily mean that it is the same case with everybody else.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for four years in my current job.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I don't think I ever had a problem.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We haven't reached a point where it is anywhere near saturation. We haven't scaled it yet, and I don't know if it will ever happen. The way it is implemented right now is more than enough for what we need.
We have used it in almost all projects of our client. It is a part of their process. It is used extensively, and it will be used for any future work that they might have where they develop any code that can be analyzed with SonarQube.
We probably have 30 or 40 users. Their roles are developer team leads, developers, and DevOps people. These are the three roles of people who use it on a daily basis and look at the reports and work with the system. At some point, the data might be shown to the actual client or somebody else.
How are customer service and support?
I've never been in a situation where I needed their support.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I don't think that we used anything else previously. SonarQube was the first one.
How was the initial setup?
It was straightforward. I wasn't technically involved in the deployment of SonarQube, but as far as I know, it was a matter of a few days.
What about the implementation team?
We probably just bought the license and did it ourselves. For its deployment and maintenance, we don't have a dedicated person. It is one of the many systems that our internal IT team manages.
What was our ROI?
I don't have that data. I don't think that we've ever calculated that.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
My guess is that we have a yearly subscription. We use it quite extensively, so a monthly license wouldn't make sense. Yearly subscriptions are usually cheaper.
In addition to the standard licensing fee, there is just the cost of running the hardware where it is hosted.
What other advice do I have?
It is pretty straightforward, but if you don't intend to use it as a gate, it would just be a waste of time. You should invest in implementing such tools only when you have a clear understanding of how their results are going to be a part of a business process.
I would rate it a 10 out of 10. I've never had any kind of problems with it. I have some products because of which I have had a bad day, but I never had a bad day because of it.
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.
Head Innovation Hub at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
Helps in improving the coding style and allows us to customize the rules
Pros and Cons
- "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."
- "Their dashboarding is very limited. They can improve their dashboards for multiple areas, such as security review, maintainability, etc. They have all this information, so they should publish all this information on the dashboard so that the users can view the summary and then analyze it further. This is something that I would like to see in the next version."
What is our primary use case?
I have used it in my previous company. In my current company, which I have joined recently, we don't use any of these tools. That's why I want to implement something for the company. I have the Community Edition of SonarQube. I am using one version prior to the latest one.
It was integrated with our build pipeline, and we had also customized the rules for the quality gate. For each release that got through SonarQube, it gave the results in terms of whether it was releasable or not.
SLA was another use case. We internally had a rule that in case there are severity defects, they need to be fixed. If there is a false positive, it needs to be justified. That's the way it was used.
What is most valuable?
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.
I did an evaluation of the Enterprise Edition. It has the Portfolio view, which means you can roll up all your projects to the Portfolio level, and then it gives a visualization of each and every project's state in terms of security and other vulnerabilities.
What needs improvement?
It is very expensive. That's something that can be improved.
I'm not sure if the latest vulnerabilities are being updated. When I compare it with Fortify on Demand (FoD), every now and then, they get all the latest and greatest versions for all these vulnerabilities as a rule pack. I'm not very sure about how that works in SonarQube, and how frequently they are updating the vulnerability databases and other things.
Their dashboarding is very limited. They can improve their dashboards for multiple areas, such as security review, maintainability, etc. They have all this information, so they should publish all this information on the dashboard so that the users can view the summary and then analyze it further. This is something that I would like to see in the next version.
The portfolio-level dashboard is currently available only in the Enterprise Edition. They can have a similar dashboard in the Community Edition or at least in the Developer Edition. The portfolio-level dashboard is also very limited currently. There is hardly one report.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for four years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It looks stable. So far, we haven't found any issues.
How are customer service and technical support?
I contacted them once or twice. I am very satisfied with their support. I didn't have any concerns in terms of support.
How was the initial setup?
It is straightforward. It takes very little time as compared to the other solutions.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It is very expensive. Its price should be improved.
What other advice do I have?
I have worked on only two tools: one is Fortify on Demand, and the other one is SonarQube. Comparing these two, I would rate SonarQube an eight out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
Systems Analyst at a manufacturing company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Frees up time to focus on daily tasks, meet delivery requirements and deliver more reliable code
Pros and Cons
- "SonarQube is a fantastic tool which saves us precious time."
- "We did have some trouble with the LDAP integration for the console."
What is our primary use case?
We use the solution to do quality code analysis for keeping track of security hotspots. We also use it to avoid the delivery of problems as the result of new code from our partners who may be developing software for systems, making improvements and carrying out bug corrections. These are the features of SonarQube of which I am aware.
What is most valuable?
SonarQube is a fantastic tool which saves us precious time. Prior to using the solution, all our code analysis was manual and this was very time consuming. The increase in the number of projects, including those involving the development team, meant that it was becoming increasingly challenging to keep up with our delivery schedules. SonarQube helped a lot in this regard. So too, the wonderful tool from Eclipse, SonarLint, was very helpful. These solutions allow the partners who develop our system, our code, to receive on-the-fly analysis of their computers. This affords delivery of a much more reliable code, something which allows us to focus our work on more aggregated value operations.
What needs improvement?
I am struggling to come up with an area needing improvement. I am a big fan of SonarQube. I do have familiarity with the solution, but not extensively on a daily basis in respect of development.
This said, we did have some trouble with the LDAP integration for the console.
For how long have I used the solution?
As our company is not primarily IT-related we are late comers when it comes to adopting new technology. As such, we started using the community version of SonarQube around eight to ten months ago.
What about the implementation team?
I have limited personal experience working with the solution. I have a colleague who works with me and she is actually engaged in its operation. My role is to provide guidance in how to implement products.
She works more in implementing the installation of the solution, in deploying the projects on SonarQube. But, I have a little more context with this tool.
What other advice do I have?
I am a customer of SonarQube.
At the moment, SonarQube is deployed on-premises. We have an installation running in one of our servers.
When we deploy on-cloud, we normally use Amazon Web Services.
I rate SonarQube as a ten out of ten, easily. I think its fantastic, a wonderful tool. Even if I don't use it directly, it frees me up to focus on other tasks in my daily routine.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Security Engineer at a computer software company with 201-500 employees
Free, scalable, but documentation needs improvement
Pros and Cons
- "The solution is stable."
- "I have found this solution creates more noise than competitors."
What is our primary use case?
I use this solution for our staging environment to review the security issues before going live or into production.
What needs improvement?
I have found this solution creates more noise than competitors.
The documentation and reporting extract can improve because other solutions are far more advanced.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for approximately two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is scalable. However, we do not use it as a SaaS solution, we use it for our staging environment at a minimum scale.
We have approximately 10 people using this solution in my organization.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Previously I worked with Fortify and Veracode and I have found those tools provided much better because they are from a commercial solution.
What about the implementation team?
Our development team did the implementation of this solution.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
This solution is free.
What other advice do I have?
My advice to others is this solution is one of the best in the free market in the industry and it is a good one to use.
I rate SonarQube a seven out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
DevOps Lead at a marketing services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Very stable and easy to integrate, but is a bit expensive
Pros and Cons
- "The reporting and the results are quick. It gets integrated within the pipeline well."
- "The pricing could be reduced a bit. It's a little expensive."
What is our primary use case?
We generally use the solution in order to do static code analysis.
What is most valuable?
What I like about SonarQube is the integration of the pipelines. It is pretty easy.
The reporting and the results are quick. It gets integrated within the pipeline well.
The solution is very stable.
The scalability is very good.
We found the initial setup to be straightforward.
What needs improvement?
The solution has a very shallow SAST scanning. That is something that can be improved.
I'm not sure if there is any plan for having DAST, as well, which is the dynamic scanning. If they offered that in SonarQube that would be ideal. I'd like to know if there is a plan or roadmap for Sonar to have that included. However, right now, at least, from the SAST perspective, it can improve.
The pricing could be reduced a bit. It's a little expensive.
For how long have I used the solution?
We've been using the solution for the past two years or so. It's been a while.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is pretty much stable. Sometimes we have observed some issues when there are a lot of services getting deployed together. We have noticed some resource constraints sometimes. Occasionally the CPU and memory get affected. That was the only thing. It could be due to the resources that we have provided and maybe not the fault of the product itself.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I don't have the user count, however, from the application perspective, we have around 30 to 50 applications, which are on SonarQube. All of the teams that are managing those applications have access to that.
It is integrated within our pipelines. It gets used every day.
Right now we are not scaling the solution. It is just one server that we have. It is static of sizing and we do not scale it.
How are customer service and technical support?
We do have an enterprise version, however, that does not include the support right now.
If we have any issues we're trying to resolve them on your own. So far, that has been sufficient.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We are also onboarding Checkmarx. We use both solutions.
We are not replacing anything. Maybe we will use both in conjunction. Checkmarx provides DAST, whereas this product does not.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is pretty simple.
I do not recall the exact amount of time it took to deploy the solution.
It does not require a lot of maintenance. It's just that whenever any latest version is coming in, we just have to upgrade it.
What about the implementation team?
We did the installation on our own. We did not need the assistance of any outside resources such as consultants or integrtors. It was all handled in-house.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
What we are looking at in the future is a bit of a price reduction. The pricing that we have been quoted for the next version is a little expensive. The pricing could be also a bit reduced.
What other advice do I have?
We are just a customer and an end-user.
While we installed the solution on the cloud, we host it on our machines.
I would recommend the product to the companies or the teams who are building from scratch, and they don't have anything for doing the scanning of their products. That is something where SonarQube can be pretty helpful.
It's good for a very small company with a limited number of products, which do not have a lot of compliance and security-related requirements that big enterprises might have.
I would rate the solution at a six out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
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.
CEO at ITShare
Good static code analysis but it's not stable and the installation is not user-friendly
Pros and Cons
- "The static code analysis is very good."
- "If you don't have any experience with the configuration or how to configure the files, it can be complicated."
What is our primary use case?
We use it for the static analysis of the source code to find issues or vulnerabilities.
What is most valuable?
The static code analysis is very good. In the banking sector, we have found several vulnerabilities and many issues in the source code.
What needs improvement?
If you don't have any experience with the configuration or how to configure the files, it can be complicated. The installation needs to be more user-friendly, as well as the interface, which could be more user-friendly.
For how long have I used the solution?
I use the full trial version of SonarQube. I have been using the latest version of SonarQube for six months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
There are issues with stability. It needs improvement.
We have four members in our organization who are using this solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I am not able to evaluate the scalability. Once we go with the Enterprise version, we will know after three months, how efficient and scalable it is with large applications.
How are customer service and technical support?
I have not contacted technical support.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward. This solution is easy to install. It only takes five minutes.
We require a team of five to deploy and maintain it.
What about the implementation team?
I completed the installation myself.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We are also evaluating Acunetix and will know what direction we want to go in the next few weeks.
Based on the testing, Acunetix offers something different. Acunetix has many features that are not found in SonarQube.
What other advice do I have?
The enterprise version comes with many features. I have not been able to test it all because I am using the evaluation version. After three months of using this solution, I will have a better understanding of it.
We plan to continue using SonarQube. Some feel that it is unfair to compare SonarQube with other solutions as it has so many features.
I would rate this solution a seven 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 Server (formerly SonarQube) Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros
sharing their opinions.
Updated: May 2025
Product Categories
Application Security Tools Static Application Security Testing (SAST) Software Development AnalyticsPopular Comparisons
CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security
Fortify on Demand
SonarQube Cloud (formerly SonarCloud)
GitHub Advanced Security
Sonatype Lifecycle
PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional
Buyer's Guide
Download our free SonarQube Server (formerly 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?