Checkmarx One vs SonarQube comparison

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Checkmarx Logo
34,421 views|22,362 comparisons
86% willing to recommend
Sonar Logo
53,062 views|42,321 comparisons
80% willing to recommend
Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary
Updated on Sep 14, 2023

We performed a comparison between SonarQube and Checkmarx based on our users’ reviews in four categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.

  • Ease of Deployment: SonarQube's setup is generally considered straightforward, with users finding it simple and quick. Some users said that Checkmarx is easy to set up, while others faced difficulties. Proper documentation and a dedicated team helped make the process smoother.   
  • Features: Most SonarQube reviewers mentioned how easy it is to integrate with other products. Checkmarx reviewers noted the benefits of the solution’s application security, scanning, and tracking.
  • Room for Improvement: SonarQube should enhance management reports, improve the scanning process, and expand language support. Checkmarx has room to improve in terms of its REST APIs, vulnerability scanning accuracy, and integration with third-party software. 
  • Pricing: Most SonarQube reviewers feel satisfied with the pricing, especially with its free Community Edition. .Checkmarx reviewers say it is expensive.
  • Service and Support: Some reviewers of SonarQube feel that support leaves room for improvement. Most reviewers of Checkmarx are satisfied with the support levels but would like faster response times. 

Comparison Results: Both solutions have intuitive interfaces and are easy to use. However, Checkmarx offers a more comprehensive feature set, including software composition scanning and a higher number of vulnerabilities detected. Checkmarx also provides better language support and more advanced reporting capabilities. SonarQube has a simpler pricing model and is generally considered more affordable. SonarQube focuses strongly on code quality and offers better integration with DevOps pipelines. The customer service and support experiences for both products vary, with some users praising the support and others reporting negative experiences.

To learn more, read our detailed Checkmarx One vs. SonarQube Report (Updated: May 2024).
769,630 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Q&A Highlights
Question: Checkmarx vs SonarQube; SonarQube interoperability with Checkmarx or Veracode
Answer: My opinions are my own and do not represent any other entities that I may be or have been affiliated with.  On this topic I think it is important to acknowledge that no matter which solution you go for you will have false positives. I don't think there will be any solution that properly solves this anytime soon.  As for Checkmarx vs SonarQube...  Checkmarx may cover more rules over a wider landscape, however I personally found this extra breadth covered outlyer rules and mostly lower priority issues. Both Checkmarx and SonarQube cover the OWASP top 10 and Sans25. Both tools can be tuned to help reduce false positives, for both you will need to analyse your tuning to ensure you are not introducing false negatives. Any tools that provide you customisation come with the risk that you could make things worse.  SonarQube has very good integration into most development IDEs empowering the engineers to run scans against the company rules on their local machine before submitting your source control and further tooling. In some it will even check the code automatically while you type it.  I see you also included Veracode in here. In my opinion that is a far superior tool to Checkmarx, this is down to their more modern approach to this problem. They also allow local developer integration to self lint code before submission.  In a perfect world, I would use Sonar for development bugs, test coverage and technical debt measurements. Then veracode to handle the SAST side for me. In short I would not duplicate the security scans in Sonar and Veracode.  Hope that helps
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"The product's most valuable feature is static code and supply chain effect analysis. It provides a lot of visibility.""The most valuable features of Checkmarx are the SCA module and the code-checking module. Additionally, the solutions are explanatory and helpful.""The main advantage of this solution is its centralized reporting functionality, which lets us track issues, then see and report on the priorities via a web portal.""The main thing we find valuable about Checkmarx is the ease of use. It's easy to initiate scans and triage defects.""The administration in Checkmarx is very good.""Checkmarx has helped us deliver more secure products. We are able to do static code analysis with the tool before shipping our code to production. When the integration is in the pipeline, this tool gives us early notifications on code fixes.""We use the solution for dynamic application testing.""It is very useful because it fits our requirements. It is also easy to use. It is not complex, and we are satisfied with the results."

More Checkmarx One Pros →

"If you want to have your code scanned and timed then this is a good tool.""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.""The software quality gate streamlines the product's quality.""It is a very good tool for analysis and security vulnerability checking.""We advise all of our developers to have this solution in place.""The most valuable feature of SonarQube I have found to be the configuration that has allowed us to can make adjusts to the demands of the code review. It gives a specified classification regarding the skill, prioritization, and it is easy for me to review and make my code.""There's plenty of documentation available to users.""I like the by-default policies that are they, as they seem to cover most of what I need."

More SonarQube Pros →

Cons
"With Checkmarx, normally you need to use one tool for quality and you need to use another tool for security. I understand that Checkmarx is not in the parity space because it's totally different, but they could include some free features or recommendations too.""When we first ran it on a big project, there wasn't enough memory on the computer. It originally ran with eight gigabytes, and now it runs with 32. The software stopped at some point, and while I don't think it said it ran out of memory, it just said "stopped" and something else. We had to go to the logs and send them to the integrator, and eventually, they found a memory issue in the logs and recommended increasing the memory. We doubled it once, and it didn't seem enough. We doubled it again, and it helped.""The integration could improve by including, for example, DevSecOps.""Updating and debugging of queries is not very convenient.""Checkmarx could improve the REST APIs by including automation.""The resolutions should also be provided. For example, if the user faces any problem regarding an installation due to the internal security policies of their company, there should be a resolution offered.""Micro-services need to be included in the next release.""Checkmarx could improve the solution reports and false positives. The false positives could be reduced. For example, we have alerts that are tagged as vulnerabilities but when you drill down they are not."

More Checkmarx One Cons →

"The handling of the contents of Docker container images could be better.""SonarQube could be improved by implementing inter-procedural code analysis capabilities, allowing for a more comprehensive detection of defects and vulnerabilities across the entire codebase.""Ease of use/interface.""The solution could improve by providing more advanced technologies.""SonarQube's detail in the security could be improved. It may be helpful to have additional details, with regards to Oracle PL/SQL. For example, it's neither as built nor as thorough as Java. For now, this is the only additional feature I would like to see.""It would be better if SonarQube provided a good UI for external configuration.""We've been using the Community Edition, which means that we get to use it at our leisure, and they're kind enough to literally give it to us. However, it takes a fair amount of effort to figure out how to get everything up and running. Since we didn't go with the professional paid version, we're not entitled to support. Of course that could be self-correcting if we were to make the step to buy into this and really use it. Then their technical support would be available to us to make strides for using it better.""SonarQube needs to improve its support model. They do not work 24/7, and they do not provide weekend support in case things go wrong. They only have a standard 8:00 am to 5:00 pm support model in which you have to raise a support ticket and wait. The support model is not effective for premium customers."

More SonarQube Cons →

Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "It is the right price for quality delivery."
  • "I believe pricing is better compared to other commercial tools."
  • "The pricing was not very good. This is just a framework which shouldn’t cost so much."
  • "The pricing is competitive and provides a lower TCO (total cost of ownership) for achieving application security."
  • "It is a good product but a little overpriced."
  • "The license has a vague language around P1 issues and the associated support. Make sure to review these in order to align them with your organizational policies."
  • "​Checkmarx is not a cheap scanning tool, but none of the security tools are cheap. Checkmarx is a powerful scanning tool, and it’s essential to have one of these products."
  • "We got a special offer for a 30% reduction for three years, after our first year. I think for a real source-code scanning tool, you have to add a lot of money for Open Source Analysis, and AppSec Coach (160 Euro per user per year)."
  • More Checkmarx One Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "This is open source."
  • "We did not purchase a license (required for C++ support), but this option was considered."
  • "Get the paid version which allows the customized dashboard and provides technical support."
  • "People can try the free licenses and later can seek buying plugins/support, etc. once they started liking it."
  • "This product is open source and very convenient."
  • "The licence is standard open source licensing"
  • "The price point on SonarQube is good."
  • "Some of the plugins that were previously free are not free now."
  • More SonarQube Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Answers from the Community
    William Hayes
    Swapna Ragi - PeerSpot reviewerSwapna Ragi
    Real User

    SonarQube depends on completely what you configure the Rules. You will have the option of the Profile creation and can be assigned to the Projects. If you configure the project --> under them services configuration it is good to go. Proper configuration is important in the Sonat Qube. Yes, Sonarqube allows developers to delint their code before SAST.


    Veracode recently introduced it. But this integration at developer Machine integration available for only JAVA coded Projets.


    About the Vulnerability coverage, both are the same. OWASP TOP 10 is equal to Sans 25. sans25 is categorized with one category number and describes under that subsection. Refer to this.  https://www.templarbit.com/blog/2018/02/08/owasp-top-10-vs-sans-cwe-25/

    Durga Gudimetla - PeerSpot reviewerDurga Gudimetla
    Real User

    SonarQube can be used for SAST. However, based on our internal analysis, our team feel CheckMarx is better suited for Security compared to SonarQube. SoanrQube is used in day to day developer code scan and Checkmarx is used during code movement to staging or during release.

    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:I would like to recommend Checkmarx. With Checkmarx, you are able to have an all in one solution for SAST and SCA as well. Veracode is only a cloud solution. Hope this helps.
    Top Answer:Compared to the solutions we used previously, Checkmarx has reduced our workload by almost 75%.
    Top Answer:The solution's price is high and you pay based on the number of users.
    Top Answer: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… more »
    Top Answer: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… more »
    Top Answer: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… more »
    Ranking
    Views
    34,421
    Comparisons
    22,362
    Reviews
    21
    Average Words per Review
    513
    Rating
    7.7
    Views
    53,062
    Comparisons
    42,321
    Reviews
    18
    Average Words per Review
    358
    Rating
    8.1
    Comparisons
    Veracode logo
    Compared 13% of the time.
    Fortify on Demand logo
    Compared 6% of the time.
    Snyk logo
    Compared 4% of the time.
    Coverity logo
    Compared 3% of the time.
    Mend.io logo
    Compared 2% of the time.
    SonarCloud logo
    Compared 12% of the time.
    Coverity logo
    Compared 11% of the time.
    Veracode logo
    Compared 10% of the time.
    Snyk logo
    Compared 6% of the time.
    Also Known As
    Sonar
    Learn More
    Interactive Demo
    Checkmarx
    Demo Not Available
    Overview

    Checkmarx is a highly accurate and flexible static code analysis product that allows organizations to automatically scan uncompiled code and identify hundreds of security vulnerabilities in all major coding languages and software frameworks. Checkmarx is available as a standalone product and can be effectively integrated into the software development lifecycle (SDLC) to streamline vulnerability detection and remediation. Checkmarx is trusted by leading organizations such as SAP, Samsung, and Salesforce.com.

    Checkmarx is a global leader in software security solutions for modern software development. Checkmarx delivers a comprehensive software security platform that unites with DevOps by scanning uncompiled source code for security vulnerabilities early in the development life cycle to reduce and remediate risk from software vulnerabilities. Using Checkmarx, teams avoid software security vulnerabilities managed via a single and unified dashboard without slowing down their delivery schedule.

    Checkmarx balances the needs of the entire organization, delivering seamless security from the start and throughout the entire software development life cycle. Checkmarx can be deployed on-premises in a private data center or hosted via a public cloud.

    Checkmarx Features

    Some of Checkmarx’s features include:

    • Source code scanning: Detect and repair more vulnerabilities before you release your code.

    • Open-source scanning: Find and eliminate the risks in your open-source code.

    • Interactive code scanning: Scan for vulnerabilities and runtime threats.

    • Open-source security for infrastructure as code: Identify and fix insecure IaC configurations that put your application at risk.

    Reviews from Real Users

    Checkmarx stands out among its competitors for a number of reasons. Two major ones are its ability to enable developers to secure their code with a single management dashboard and its high-speed scanning abilities.

    PeerSpot users note the effectiveness of these features. A CEO at a tech services company writes, “The most valuable features are the easy-to-understand interface, and it’s very user-friendly. We spend some time tuning to start scanning a new project, which is only a few clicks. A few simple tunes for custom rules and we can start our scan. We can do the work quickly and we don't need to compile the source code because Checkmarx does the work without compiling the project. The scanning is very quick. It's about 20,000 lines per hour, which is a good speed for scanning.”

    A director at a tech services company notes, “The features and technologies are very good. The flexibility and the roadmap have also been very good. They're at the forefront of delivering the additional capabilities that are required with cloud delivery, etc. Their ability to deliver what customers require and when they require is very important.”

    A senior manager at a manufacturing company writes, “The identification of verification-related security vulnerabilities is really important and one of the key things. It also identifies vulnerabilities for any kind of third-party tool coming into the system or any third-party tools that you are using, which is very useful for avoiding random hacking."

    SonarQube is a self-managed open-source platform that helps developers create code devoid of quality and vulnerability issues. By integrating seamlessly with the top DevOps platforms in the Continuous Integration (CI) pipeline, SonarQube continuously inspects projects across multiple programming languages, providing immediate status feedback while coding. SonarQube’s quality gates become part of your release pipeline, displaying pass/fail results for new code based on quality profiles you customize to your company standards. Following Sonar’s Clean as You Code methodology guarantees that only software of the highest quality makes it to production.

    At its core, SonarQube includes a static code analyzer that identifies bugs, security vulnerabilities, hidden secrets, and code smells. The platform guides you through issue resolution, fostering a culture of continuous improvement. SonarQube’s comprehensive reporting is a valuable tool for dev teams to monitor their codebase's overall health and quality across multiple projects in their portfolio. With SonarQube, you can achieve a state of Clean Code, leading to secure, reliable, and maintainable software.

    Sonar is the only solution combining the power of industry-leading software quality analysis with static application security testing (SAST) and real-time coding guidance in the IDE (with SonarLint) to meet the DevOps and DevSecOps demand of putting agility, automation, and security in the hands of developers. Further accelerate DevOps continuous integration by helping developers find and fix issues in code before the software testing stage, reducing the churn of finding, fixing, rebuilding, and retesting your app.

    With over 5,000 Clean Code rules, SonarQube analyzes 30+ of the most popular programming languages, including dozens of frameworks, the top DevOps platforms (GitLab, GitHub, Azure DevOps, and Bitbucket, and more), and the leading infrastructure as code (IaC) platforms.

    SonarQube is the most trusted static code analyzer used by over 7 million developers and 400,000 organizations globally to clean over half a trillion lines of code.

    Sample Customers
    YIT, Salesforce, Coca-Cola, SAP, U.S. Army, Liveperson, Playtech Case Study: Liveperson Implements Innovative Secure SDLC
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company31%
    Financial Services Firm19%
    Comms Service Provider9%
    Manufacturing Company9%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Financial Services Firm21%
    Computer Software Company15%
    Manufacturing Company9%
    Insurance Company5%
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company30%
    Financial Services Firm21%
    Comms Service Provider7%
    Manufacturing Company7%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Financial Services Firm17%
    Computer Software Company15%
    Manufacturing Company11%
    Government6%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business38%
    Midsize Enterprise13%
    Large Enterprise50%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business17%
    Midsize Enterprise11%
    Large Enterprise72%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business25%
    Midsize Enterprise16%
    Large Enterprise59%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business17%
    Midsize Enterprise13%
    Large Enterprise70%
    Buyer's Guide
    Checkmarx One vs. SonarQube
    May 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about Checkmarx One vs. SonarQube and other solutions. Updated: May 2024.
    769,630 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Checkmarx One is ranked 3rd in Application Security Tools with 67 reviews while SonarQube is ranked 1st in Application Security Tools with 110 reviews. Checkmarx One is rated 7.6, while SonarQube is rated 8.0. The top reviewer of Checkmarx One writes "The report function is a great, configurable asset but sometimes yields false positives". On the other hand, the top reviewer of SonarQube writes "Easy to integrate and has a plug-in that supports both C and C++ languages". Checkmarx One is most compared with Veracode, Fortify on Demand, Snyk, Coverity and Mend.io, whereas SonarQube is most compared with SonarCloud, Coverity, Veracode, Snyk and GitHub Advanced Security. See our Checkmarx One vs. SonarQube report.

    See our list of best Application Security Tools vendors and best Application Security Testing (AST) vendors.

    We monitor all Application Security Tools reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.