GitHub Code Scanning vs SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) comparison

GitHub and Sonar are both solutions in the Static Application Security Testing (SAST) category. GitHub is ranked #17 with an average rating of 9.3, while Sonar is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.2. GitHub holds a 1.0% mindshare in SAST, compared to Sonar’s 26.7% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of GitHub users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 81% of Sonar users who would recommend it.

GitHub Code Scanning

Read 3 GitHub Code Scanning reviews

676 Views
585 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

SonarQube Server (formerly ...

Read 114 SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) reviews

36,964 Views
30,888 Comparison Views

81% willing to recommend

GitHub Code Scanning

SonarQube Server (formerly ...

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 9, 2025

SonarQube Server and GitHub Code Scanning are competing products in the code analysis domain. GitHub Code Scanning appears to have the upper hand due to its feature richness and integration capabilities.

Features: SonarQube Server provides an extensive rules set, comprehensive reporting, and flexibility for static code analysis. GitHub Code Scanning offers seamless integration with the GitHub ecosystem, superior ease of use, and automated security alerts for efficiency-focused teams.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SonarQube Server requires a traditional deployment method and delivers extensive support options suited for organizations needing customized assistance. GitHub Code Scanning allows streamlined deployment directly through GitHub, ideal for teams seeking a quick setup process.

Pricing and ROI: SonarQube Server is known for its competitive pricing and stable ROI, appealing to budget-conscious organizations. GitHub Code Scanning, despite being potentially higher in cost, justifies its pricing with significant ROI by leveraging deep GitHub integration and advanced automation.

To learn more, read our detailed GitHub Code Scanning vs. SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

GitHub Code Scanning vs. SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube)

April 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 849,190 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

GitHub Code Scanning

Ranking in Static Application Security Testing (SAST)

17th

Average Rating

9.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

SonarQube Server (formerly ...

Ranking in Static Application Security Testing (SAST)

1st

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

114

Ranking in other categories

Application Security Tools (1st), Software Development Analytics (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Static Application Security Testing (SAST) category, the mindshare of GitHub Code Scanning is 1.0%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) is 26.7%, down from 28.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Static Application Security Testing (SAST)

Featured Reviews

VishalSingh

Consulting & Solutions, BA/BD in Enterprise IT on Open Source, Red Hat & EDB at KEEN AND ABLE COMPUTERS PVT LTD

Traverses the entire network, scanning every system to determine which ports are open

You can use the tool locally on your system or in the cloud. I rate it a nine out of ten. It's a very good tool for people who want to start using GitHubCode Scanning, especially for software development or team collaboration. GitHubCode Scanning allows teams to collaborate by uploading files to repositories. For example, if someone is developing an application, they can host the code on GitHub Code Scanning. Other developers can then download the code for testing purposes. If bugs are found, fixes can be applied using the GitHub Code Scanningrepository, and everyone on the team can see the changes. Software developers often use GitHub Code Scanning for version control, and it's essential for CI/CD pipelines to work.

Read full review

Wang Dayong

Senior Software Engineering Manager at Hill

Easy to integrate and has a plug-in that supports both C and C++ languages

The product provides false reports sometimes. It also fails to understand the context of the code. It reports that a line of code has issues without considering its relation with the previous line. The product should improve the report quality. While it asks us to improve the code quality, it would be good if it also suggests how to improve the quality.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"We use GitHub Code Scanning mostly for source code management."

"The solution helps identify vulnerabilities by understanding how ports communicate with applications running on a system. Ports are like house numbers; to visit someone's house, you must know their number. Similarly, ports are used to communicate with applications. For example, if you want to use an HTTP web server, you must use port 80. It is the port on which the web application or your server listens for incoming requests."

"GitHub Code Spaces brings significant value with its simplicity and ease of use."

"SonarQube has a lot of value, it reviews the basic coding standards and security vulnerabilities of code that help to reduce issues."

"We consider it a handy tool that helps to resolve our issues immediately."

"This solution has helped with the integration and building of our CICD pipeline."

"The most valuable features are the dashboard reports and the ease of integrating it with Jenkins."

"This solution is simple to use and can be quickly deployed."

"Engineers have also learned from the results and have improved themselves as engineers. This will help them with their careers."

"It provides you with many features, as it does with the premium model, but there are still extra features that can be purchased if needed."

"The solution can verify vulnerabilities, code smells, and hotspots. It makes the software more secure and it helps make a junior or novice developer sharper."

More SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) pros

Cons

"GitHub Code Scanning should add more templates."

"One area for improvement could be the ability to have an AI system digest the reports generated from code scanning and provide a summary. Currently, the reports can be extensive, and users may overlook details, such as outdated libraries, which could be highlighted for attention."

"I find it is light on the security side."

"The solution could improve by having better-consulting services."

"Having performance regression would be a helpful add on or ability to be able to do during the scan."

"For improvement, this solution could be offered on Docker and the cloud and the support for this solution could be improved. Customizing rules could also be made simpler."

"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."

"SonarQube could improve by adding automatic creation of tasks after scanning and more support for the Czech language."

"There is no automation. You need to put the code there and test. You then pull the results and put them back in the development environment. There is no integration with the development environment. We would like it to be integrated with our development environment, which is basically the CI/CD pipeline or the IDE that we have."

"After scanning our code and generating a report, it would be helpful if SonarQube could also generate a solution to fix vulnerabilities in the report."

More SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"GitHub Code Scanning is a moderately priced solution."

"The minimum pricing for the tool is five dollars a month."

"The beauty of this solution is the free open-source version is capable enough in doing pretty much what an enterprise-level version can do."

"We use the tool's community edition."

"We're using an older version because it is the open-source flavor of it and we can continue using it at no cost. We're not paying any licensing at all, which was another factor in choosing this route so that we can learn and grow with it and not be committed to licenses and other similar things. If we choose to get something else, we have to relearn, but we don't have to relicense. Basically, we're paying no license costs."

"It's a bit expensive for us. The currency rate of the dollar is a problem but it may be fine for other countries."

"The product’s price is lower than Veracode’s price."

"On the pricing side, it's 3,000 Euros for 1 million lines of code."

"The developer edition is based on cost per lines of code."

"The price of the solution could be reduced."

More SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Static Application Security Testing (SAST) solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

849,190 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

14%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

17%

Computer Software Company

15%

Manufacturing Company

13%

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about GitHub Code Scanning?

We use GitHub Code Scanning mostly for source code management.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for GitHub Code Scanning?

The minimum pricing for the tool is five dollars a month.

See all answers

What needs improvement with GitHub Code Scanning?

One area for improvement could be the ability to have an AI system digest the reports generated from code scanning and provide a summary. Currently, the reports can be extensive, and users may over...

See all answers

Is SonarQube the best tool for static analysis?

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...

See all answers

Which gives you more for your money - SonarQube or Veracode?

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...

See all answers

How would you decide between Coverity and Sonarqube?

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 rem...

See all answers

Comparisons

Coverity vs GitHub Code Scanning

Compared 29% of the time

SonarQube Cloud (formerly SonarCloud) vs GitHub Code Scanning

Compared 16% of the time

Aikido Security vs GitHub Code Scanning

Compared 9% of the time

Polaris Software Integrity Platform vs GitHub Code Scanning

Compared 5% of the time

OWASP Zap vs GitHub Code Scanning

Compared 4% of the time

More GitHub Code Scanning Competitors

Checkmarx One vs SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube)

Compared 13% of the time

Coverity vs SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube)

Compared 12% of the time

GitHub Advanced Security vs SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube)

Compared 10% of the time

SonarQube Cloud (formerly SonarCloud) vs SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube)

Compared 10% of the time

Veracode vs SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube)

Compared 7% of the time

More SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Static Application Security Testing (SAST)

April 2025

Download GitHub Code Scanning product report

Buyer's Guide

SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube)

March 2025

SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) report

Download SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) product report

Also Known As

No data available

Sonar

Interactive Demo

Demo not available

GitHub

Sonar

Overview

Code scanning is a feature that you use to analyze the code in a GitHub repository to find security vulnerabilities and coding errors. Any problems identified by the analysis are shown in GitHub.

GitHub

SonarQube Server enhances code quality and security via static code analysis. It detects vulnerabilities, improves standards, and reduces technical debt, integrating into CI/CD pipelines.

SonarQube Server is a comprehensive tool for enhancing code quality and security. It offers static code analysis to identify vulnerabilities, improve coding standards, and reduce technical debt. By integrating into CI/CD pipelines, it provides automated checks for adherence to best practices. Organizations use it for code inspection, security testing, and compliance, ensuring development environments with better maintainability and fewer issues.

What are the key features of SonarQube Server?

Support for 20+ languages: Extensive programming language support suitable for diverse coding environments.
Custom coding rules: Allows for tailored rule sets to match specific coding standards.
Flexible quality gates: Define criteria for code acceptance at various intervals.
CI/CD integration: Seamless integration with Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment tools.
Rich interface: User-friendly dashboard with detailed visual insights.

What benefits should users expect from SonarQube Server?

Improved code quality: Enhanced analysis contributes to fewer bugs and improved coding practices.
Security enhancements: Identifies and mitigates security vulnerabilities pre-emptively.
Maintainability: Reduces technical debt, yielding long-term development efficiency.
Customizable: Flexibility in configuration aligns with specific project needs.

Many industries implement SonarQube Server to uphold coding standards, maintain security protocols, and streamline their software development lifecycle. In sectors like finance and healthcare, adhering to regulations and ensuring reliable software is critical, making SonarQube Server invaluable. It is often integrated into CI/CD pipelines, ensuring that code changes meet set standards before deployment. This approach enhances productivity and maintains compliance with industry-specific requirements.

Sonar

Buyer's Guide

GitHub Code Scanning vs. SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube)

April 2025

Free Report: GitHub Code Scanning vs. SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube)

Find out what your peers are saying about GitHub Code Scanning vs. SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

849,190 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our GitHub Code Scanning vs. SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) report.

See our list of best Static Application Security Testing (SAST) vendors.

We monitor all Static Application Security Testing (SAST) 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.