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).
765,386 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
"I like the recording feature.""There's extensive functionality with custom rules and a custom knowledge base.""The UI was very intuitive.""It's generally a very user-friendly tool. Anyone can easily learn how to scan""The most valuable feature of the solution is the scanning or security part.""The static scans are good, and the SaaS as well.""It identifies all the URLs and domains on its own and then performs tests and provides the results.""It provides a better integration for our ecosystem."

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"SonarQube is one of the more popular solutions because it supports 29 languages.""I like that it covers most programming languages for source code review.""This has improved our organization because it has helped to find Security Vulnerabilities.""It has very good scalability and stability.""The most valuable features are the wide array of languages, multiple languages per project, the breakdown of bugs, and the description of vulnerabilities and code smells (best practices).""The static code analysis is very good.""We advise all of our developers to have this solution in place.""The stability is good."

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Cons
"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 penetration testing feature should be included.""In future releases, I would like to see more aggressive reports. I would also like to see less false positives.""We have experienced challenges when trying to integrate this solution with other products. When you compare it with the other SecOps products, the quality of the output is too low. It is not a new-age product. It is very outdated.""The pricing has room for improvement.""The tool should improve its output. Scanning is not a challenge anymore since there are many such tools available in the market. The product needs to focus on how its output is being used by end users. It should be also more user-friendly. One of the major challenges is in the tool's integration with applications that need to be scanned. Sometimes, the scanning is not proper.""The solution needs to improve in some areas. The tool needs to add more languages. It also needs to improve its speed.""There are so many lines of code with so many different categories that I am likely to get lost. ​"

More HCL AppScan Cons →

"The handling of the contents of Docker container images could be better.""We could use some team support, but since we are using the community version, it's not available.""SonarQube could be improved with more dynamic testing—basically, now, it's a static code analysis scan. For example, when the developer writes the code and does the corresponding unit test, he can cover functional and non-functional. So the SonarQube could be improved by helping to execute unit tests and test dynamically, using various parameters, and to help detect any vulnerabilities. Currently, it'll just give the test case and say whether it passes or fails—it won't give you any other input or dynamic testing. They could use artificial intelligence to build a feature that would help developers identify and fix issues in the early stages, which would help us deliver the product and reduce costs. Another area with room for improvement is in regard to automating things, since the process currently needs to be done manually.""We're in the process of figuring out how to automate the workflow for QA audit controls on it. I think that's perhaps an area that we could use some buffing. We're a Kubernetes shop, so there are some things that aren't direct fits, which we're struggling with on the component Docker side. But nothing major.""The product's user documentation can be vastly improved.""SonarQube can improve by scanning the internal library which currently it does not do. We are looking for a solution for this.""The security in SonarQube could be better.""It requires advanced heuristics to recognize more complex constructs that could be disregarded as issues."

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
    Checkmarx logo
    Compared 22% of the time.
    SonarCloud logo
    Compared 13% of the time.
    Coverity logo
    Compared 11% of the time.
    Veracode logo
    Compared 10% of the time.
    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 Firm14%
    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.
    765,386 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    HCL AppScan is ranked 14th in Application Security Tools with 39 reviews while SonarQube is ranked 1st in Application Security Tools with 108 reviews. HCL AppScan is rated 7.6, while SonarQube is rated 8.0. The top reviewer of HCL AppScan writes " A stable and scalable product useful for application security scanning". 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". HCL AppScan is most compared with Veracode, Acunetix, OWASP Zap, PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional and Fortify WebInspect, 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.