Fortify Application Defender vs Sonatype Lifecycle comparison

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1,977 views|1,670 comparisons
80% willing to recommend
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13,374 views|7,366 comparisons
89% willing to recommend
Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Fortify Application Defender and Sonatype Lifecycle based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Application Security Tools solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.
To learn more, read our detailed Fortify Application Defender vs. Sonatype Lifecycle Report (Updated: March 2024).
768,415 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"Fortify Application Defender's most valuable features are machine learning algorithms, real-time remediation, and automatic vulnerability notifications.""The solution helped us to improve the code quality of our organization.""The most valuable feature is that it analyzes data in real-time.""The tool's most valuable feature is software composition analysis. This feature works well with my .NET applications, providing a better understanding of library vulnerabilities.""Its ability to find security defects is valuable.""The information from Fortify Application Defender on how to fix and solve issues is very good compared to other solutions.""The most valuable feature is the ability to automatically feed it rules what it's coupled with the WebInspect dynamic application scanning technology.""The most valuable features of Fortify Application Defender are the code packages that are default."

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"Fortify integrates with various development environments and tools, such as IDEs (Integrated Development Environments) and CI/CD pipelines.""The grandfathering mode allows us to add legacy applications which we know we're not going to change or refactor for some time. New developments can be scanned separately and we can obviously resolve those vulnerabilities where there are new applications developed. The grandfathering is a good way to separate what can be factored now, versus long-term technical debt.""The IQ server and repo are the most valuable.""The most valuable feature is that I get a quick overview of the libraries that are included in the application, and the issues that are connected with them. I can quickly understand which problems there are from a security point of view or from a licensing point of view. It's quick and very exact.""The Software Security Center, which is often overlooked, stands out as the most effective feature.""The scanning capability is its most valuable feature, discovering vulnerable open source libraries.""We really like the Nexus Firewall. There are increasing threats from npm, rogue components, and we've been able to leverage protection there. We also really like being able to know which of our apps has known vulnerabilities.""It was very easy to integrate into our build pipeline, with Jenkins and Nexus Repository as the central product."

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Cons
"I encountered many false positives for Python applications.""Support for older compilers/IDEs is lacking.""The solution is quite expensive.""The solution could improve the time it takes to scan. When comparing it to SonarQube it does it in minutes while in Fortify Application Defender it can take hours.""The false positive rate should be lower.""Fortify Application Defender gives a lot of false positives.""The workbench is a little bit complex when you first start using it.""Fortify Application Defender could improve by supporting more code languages, such as GRAAS and Groovy."

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"One of the things that we specifically did ask for is support for transitive dependencies. Sometimes a dependency that we define in our POM file for a certain library will be dependent on other stuff and we will pull that stuff in, then you get a cascade of libraries that are pulled in. This caused confusing to us at first, because we would see a component that would have security ticket or security notification on it and wonder "Where is this coming in from?" Because when we checked what we defined as our dependencies it's not there. It didn't take us too long effort to realize that it was a transitive dependency pulled in by something else, but the question then remains "Which dependency is doing that?"""The reporting capability is good but I wish it was better. I sent the request to support and they raised it as an enhancement within the system. An example is filtering by version. If I have a framework that is used in all applications, but version 1 is used in 50 percent of them and version 2 in 25 percent, they will show as different libraries with different usage. But in reality, they're all using one framework.""Their licensing is expensive.""Fortify Static Code Analyzer has a bit of a learning curve, and I don't find it particularly helpful in narrowing down the vulnerabilities we should prioritize.""We had some issues, and I think we might still have some issues, where the Sonatype Nexus Repository has integrations with IQ and SonarQube. We're getting some errors on the UI, so we've had Sonatype look into that a little bit.""The team managing Nexus Lifecycle reported that their internal libraries were not being identified, so they have asked Sonatype's technical team to include that in the upcoming version.""We created the Wiki page for each team showing an overview of their outstanding security issues because the Lifecycle reporting interface isn't as intuitive. It is good for people on my team who use it quite often. But for a tech engineer who doesn't interact with it regularly, it's quite confusing.""We use Azure DevOps as our application lifecycle management tool. It doesn't integrate with that as well as it does with other tools at the moment, but I think there's work being done to address that. In terms of IDEs, it integrates well. We would like to integrate it into our Azure cloud deployment but the integration with Azure Active Directory isn't quite as slick as we would like it to be. We have to do some workarounds for that at the moment."

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Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "The base licensing costs for the SaaS platform is about $900 USD per application, per year."
  • "The price of this solution could be less expensive."
  • "The licensing is very complex, it's project based and can range from $10,000 to $200,000+ depending on the project type and size."
  • "Fortify Application Defender is very expensive."
  • "The product’s price is much higher than other tools."
  • More Fortify Application Defender Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "Its pricing is competitive within the market. It's not very cheap, it's not very expensive."
  • "We're pretty happy with the price, for what it is delivering for us and the value we're getting from it."
  • "Pricing is comparable with some of the other products. We are happy with the pricing."
  • "The price is good. We certainly get a lot more in return. However, it's also hard to get the funds to roll out such a product for the entire firm. Therefore, pricing has been a limiting factor for us. However, it's a fair price."
  • "The license fee may be a bit harder for startups to justify. But it will save you a headache later as well as peace of mind. Additionally, it shows your own customers that you value security stuff and will protect yourselves from any licensing issues, which is good marketing too."
  • "In addition to the license fee for IQ Server, you have to factor in some running costs. We use AWS, so we spun up an additional VM to run this. If the database is RDS that adds a little bit extra too. Of course someone could run it on a pre-existing VM or physical server to reduce costs. I should add that compared to the license fee, the running costs are so minimal they had no effect on our decision to use IQ Server."
  • "Pricing is decent. It's not horrible. It's middle-of-the-road, as far as our ranking goes. They're a little bit more but that's also because they provide more."
  • "Lifecycle, to the best of my recollection, had the best pricing compared with other solutions."
  • More Sonatype Lifecycle Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:The tool's most valuable feature is software composition analysis. This feature works well with my .NET applications, providing a better understanding of library vulnerabilities.
    Top Answer:I encountered many false positives for Python applications.
    Top Answer:I use Fortify to analyze projects in .NET languages.
    Top Answer:We like the data that Sonatype Nexus Lifecycle consistently delivers. This solution helps us in fixing and understanding the issues a lot quicker. The policy engine allows you to set up different… more »
    Top Answer:Fortify integrates with various development environments and tools, such as IDEs (Integrated Development Environments) and CI/CD pipelines.
    Top Answer:I would rate the affordability of the solution as an eight out of ten.
    Ranking
    Views
    1,977
    Comparisons
    1,670
    Reviews
    3
    Average Words per Review
    282
    Rating
    6.3
    Views
    13,374
    Comparisons
    7,366
    Reviews
    15
    Average Words per Review
    1,056
    Rating
    8.1
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    HPE Fortify Application Defender, Micro Focus Fortify Application Defender
    Sonatype Nexus Lifecycle, Nexus Lifecycle
    Learn More
    Overview

    Micro Focus Security Fortify Application Defender is a runtime application self-protection (RASP) solution that helps you manage and mitigate risk from homegrown or third-party applications. It provides centralized visibility into application use and abuse while protecting from software vulnerability exploits and other violations in real time.

    Sonatype Lifecycle is an open-source security and dependency management software that uses only one tool to automatically find open-source vulnerabilities at every stage of the System Development Life Cycle (SDLC). Users can now minimize security vulnerabilities, permitting organizations to enhance development workflow. Sonatype Lifecycle gives the user complete control over their software supply chain, allowing them to regain wasted time fighting risks in the SDLC. In addition, this software unifies the ability to define rules, actions, and policies that work best for your organizations and teams.

    Sonatype Lifecycle allows users to help their teams discover threats before an attack has the chance to take place by examining a database of known vulnerabilities. With continuous monitoring at every stage of the development life cycle, Sonatype Lifecycle enables teams to build secure software. The solution allows users to utilize a complete automated solution within their existing workflows. Once a potential threat is identified, the solution’s policies will automatically rectify it.

    Benefits of Open-source Security Monitoring

    As cybersecurity attacks are on the rise, organizations are at constant risk for data breaches. Managing your software supply chain gets trickier as your organization grows, leaving many vulnerabilities exposed. With easily accessible source code that can be modified and shared freely, open-source monitoring gives users complete transparency. A community of professionals can inspect open-source code to ensure fewer bugs, and any open-source dependency vulnerability will be detected and fixed rapidly. Users can use open-source security monitoring to avoid attacks through automatic detection of potential threats and rectification immediately and automatically.

    Reviews from Real Users

    Sonatype Lifecycle software receives high praise from users for many reasons. Among them are the abilities to identify and rectify vulnerabilities at every stage of the SDLC, help with open-source governance, and minimize risk.

    Michael E., senior enterprise architect at MIB Group, says "Some of the more profound features include the REST APIs. We tend to make use of those a lot. They also have a plugin for our CI/CD.”

    R.S., senior architect at a insurance company, notes “Specifically features that have been good include:

    • the email notifications
    • the API, which has been good to work with for reporting, because we have some downstream reporting requirements
    • that it's been really user-friendly to work with.”

    "Its engine itself is most valuable in terms of the way it calculates and decides whether a security vulnerability exists or not. That's the most important thing. Its security is also pretty good, and its listing about the severities is also good," says Subham S., engineering tools and platform manager at BT - British Telecom.

    Sample Customers
    ServiceMaster, Saltworks, SAP
    Genome.One, Blackboard, Crediterform, Crosskey, Intuit, Progress Software, Qualys, Liberty Mutual Insurance
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company25%
    Energy/Utilities Company13%
    Comms Service Provider13%
    Manufacturing Company13%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Financial Services Firm21%
    Computer Software Company14%
    Manufacturing Company12%
    Government8%
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm32%
    Computer Software Company11%
    Insurance Company11%
    Manufacturing Company8%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Financial Services Firm32%
    Computer Software Company11%
    Government9%
    Manufacturing Company6%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business36%
    Midsize Enterprise9%
    Large Enterprise55%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business12%
    Midsize Enterprise14%
    Large Enterprise74%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business28%
    Midsize Enterprise15%
    Large Enterprise57%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business15%
    Midsize Enterprise10%
    Large Enterprise76%
    Buyer's Guide
    Fortify Application Defender vs. Sonatype Lifecycle
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about Fortify Application Defender vs. Sonatype Lifecycle and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
    768,415 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Fortify Application Defender is ranked 34th in Application Security Tools with 10 reviews while Sonatype Lifecycle is ranked 6th in Application Security Tools with 42 reviews. Fortify Application Defender is rated 8.0, while Sonatype Lifecycle is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of Fortify Application Defender writes "Reliable solution with excellent machine learning algorithms but expensive and lacking support". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Sonatype Lifecycle writes "Seamless to integrate and identify vulnerabilities and frees up staff time". Fortify Application Defender is most compared with Checkmarx One, Coverity, CAST Application Intelligence Platform, SonarQube and Qualys Web Application Scanning, whereas Sonatype Lifecycle is most compared with SonarQube, Black Duck, Fortify Static Code Analyzer, GitLab and Checkmarx One. See our Fortify Application Defender vs. Sonatype Lifecycle report.

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    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.