HCL AppScan vs SonarQube comparison

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5,763 views|4,452 comparisons
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57,256 views|45,052 comparisons
Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary
Updated on Oct 27, 2022

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

  • Ease of Deployment: Most users of both solutions say their initial setup is straightforward.
  • Features: Users of both products are happy with their stability, scalability, and performance.

    Users of HCL AppScan like the solution’s UI and support of many languages. Reviewers mention that the solution has a high number of false positives and that its integration abilities could be improved.

    Sonarqube users like the solution’s ease of use, its good integration, and its ability to detect code quality during development. Users say more security scanning features and more dynamic testing would be helpful.
  • Pricing: HCL AppScan users share mixed reviews on pricing. Most SonarQube reviewers feel satisfied with the pricing, especially with its free Community Edition. SonarQube offers an open-source version as well as a reasonably priced product.
  • Service and Support: Users of both solutions express that support could be improved.

Comparison Results: Sonarqube offers better integration capabilities than HCL AppScan. Additionally, Sonarqube users are happier with the pricing. For these reasons, Sonarqube is the more desirable product in this comparison.

To learn more, read our detailed HCL AppScan vs. SonarQube Report (Updated: March 2024).
763,955 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
"It comes with all of the templates that we need. For example, we are a company that is regulated by PCI. In order to be PCI compliant, we have a lot of checks and procedures to which we have to comply.""The most valuable feature of the solution is Postman.""The static scans are good, and the SaaS as well.""The product has valuable features for static and dynamic testing.""It has certainly helped us find vulnerabilities in our software, so this is priceless in the end.""This solution saves us time due to the low number of false positives detected.""This is a stable solution.""IBM AppScan has made our work easy, as we can do four to five scans of websites at a time, which saves time when it comes to vulnerability."

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"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 most valuable features are code scanning and Quality Gates.""It's enabled us to improve software quality and help us to disseminate best practices.""There are many options and examples available in the tool that help us fix the issues it shows us.""This solution has the capability to analyze source code in almost all the languages in the market.""SonarQube is designed well making it easy to use, simple to identify issues and find solutions to problems.""This has improved our organization because it has helped to find Security Vulnerabilities.""SonarQube is useful for controlling all of our Azure task tracking and scanning."

More SonarQube Pros →

Cons
"Sometimes it doesn't work so well.""The solution could improve by having a mobile version.""Visibility is an issue for us. Our partners do not know we have integrations with some of IBM products.""We would like to see a check in the specific vulnerabilities in mobile applications or rooted devices, such as jailbreaking devices.""One thing which I think can be improved is the CI/CD Integration""If HCL AppScan is able to alert the clients over email once the scan is complete, it would be great. Right now, HCL AppScan doesn't let me know if the scanning part is finished or not, because of which I have to come back and check mostly.""The solution often has a high number of false positives. It's an aspect they really need to improve upon.""​IBM Security AppScan Source is rather hard to use​."

More HCL AppScan Cons →

"It should be user-friendly.""If you don't have any experience with the configuration or how to configure the files, it can be complicated.""Expression of common vulnerabilities and exposures is not always current.""From a reporting perspective, we sometimes have problems interpreting the vulnerability scan reports. For example, if it finds a possible threat, our analysts have to manually check the provided reports, and sometimes we have issues getting all the data needed to properly verify if it's accurate or not.""The interface could be a little better and should be enhanced.""The handling of the contents of Docker container images could be better.""When we have a thousand products published over it, we expect it to be more efficient in terms of serving requests from the browser.""Although it has Sonar built into it, it is still lacking. Customization features of identifying a particular attack still need to be worked on. To give you an example: if we want to scan and do a false positive analysis, those types of features are missing. If we want to rescan something from a particular point that is a feature that is also missing. It’s in our queue. That will hopefully save a lot of time."

More SonarQube Cons →

Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "AppScan is a little bit expensive. IBM needs to work a little bit on the pricing model, decreasing the license cost."
  • "With the features, that they offer, and the support, they offer, AppScan pricing is on a higher level."
  • "Pricing was the main reason that we went ahead with this solution as they were the lowest in the market."
  • "HCL AppScan is expensive."
  • "I would rate the product's pricing a nine out of ten. The product's pricing is expensive compared to the features that they offer."
  • "The price is very expensive."
  • "The solution is moderately priced."
  • "The price of HCL AppScan is okay, in my opinion. You just buy HCL AppScan and don't pay anything anymore, meaning it is just a one-time purchase."
  • More HCL AppScan 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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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:The product has valuable features for static and dynamic testing.
    Top Answer:HCL AppScan generates false results. Sometimes, it incorrectly identifies requests as vulnerable when they are not vulnerable. In the ADSL feature managed, the primary objective is to identify… more »
    Top Answer:HCL AppScan efficiently scans through the website and identifies vulnerabilities for AWS. It is reducing tools day by day, making it more efficient.
    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
    5,763
    Comparisons
    4,452
    Reviews
    17
    Average Words per Review
    339
    Rating
    7.2
    Views
    57,256
    Comparisons
    45,052
    Reviews
    18
    Average Words per Review
    397
    Rating
    8.0
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    IBM Security AppScan, Rational AppScan, AppScan
    Sonar
    Learn More
    Interactive Demo
    HCLTech
    Demo Not Available
    Overview

    IBM Security AppScan enhances web application security and mobile application security, improves application security program management and strengthens regulatory compliance. By scanning your web and mobile applications prior to deployment, AppScan enables you to identify security vulnerabilities and generate reports and fix recommendations.

    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
    Essex Technology Group Inc., Cisco, West Virginia University, APIS IT
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Government16%
    Transportation Company16%
    Manufacturing Company11%
    Insurance Company11%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company19%
    Financial Services Firm13%
    Government10%
    Manufacturing Company8%
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company30%
    Financial Services Firm21%
    Comms Service Provider7%
    Manufacturing Company6%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Financial Services Firm17%
    Computer Software Company15%
    Manufacturing Company11%
    Government6%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business25%
    Midsize Enterprise11%
    Large Enterprise64%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business17%
    Midsize Enterprise13%
    Large Enterprise70%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business25%
    Midsize Enterprise15%
    Large Enterprise60%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business17%
    Midsize Enterprise13%
    Large Enterprise71%
    Buyer's Guide
    HCL AppScan vs. SonarQube
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about HCL AppScan vs. SonarQube and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
    763,955 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    HCL AppScan is ranked 14th in Application Security Tools with 19 reviews while SonarQube is ranked 1st in Application Security Tools with 18 reviews. HCL AppScan is rated 7.6, while SonarQube is rated 8.0. The top reviewer of HCL AppScan writes "A useful tool to scan applications that can be easily installed". On the other hand, the top reviewer of SonarQube writes "A stable solution that needs to make its enterprise version and support available to users in Thailand". HCL AppScan is most compared with Veracode, Acunetix, OWASP Zap, Fortify WebInspect and PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional, whereas SonarQube is most compared with Checkmarx, SonarCloud, Coverity and Veracode. See our HCL AppScan 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.