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 #21 with an average rating of 9.5, while Sonar is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.2. GitHub holds a 0.7% mindshare in SAST, compared to Sonar’s 28.4% 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 2 GitHub Code Scanning reviews

510 Views
449 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

SonarQube Server (formerly ...

Read 113 SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) reviews

42,185 Views
34,676 Comparison Views

81% willing to recommend

GitHub Code Scanning

SonarQube Server (formerly ...

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 30, 2024

SonarQube Server and GitHub Code Scanning both compete in the code quality analysis and security scanning sector. SonarQube Server might have the upper hand in detection capabilities, while GitHub Code Scanning demonstrates strong integration within its ecosystem.

Features: SonarQube Server supports a wide range of programming languages, offers customizable rules, and provides rich dashboarding options. GitHub Code Scanning integrates seamlessly with GitHub repositories, leverages GitHub actions, and provides security alerts tailored for GitHub projects.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SonarQube Server offers standalone deployment with self-hosting options, catering to on-premise needs, but relies on enterprise plans for customer support. GitHub Code Scanning is effortlessly deployed within the GitHub ecosystem thanks to cloud-based solutions and benefits from GitHub's global community support.

Pricing and ROI: SonarQube Server's setup costs vary with scale and enterprise features, offering high ROI through comprehensive scanning. GitHub Code Scanning presents a low barrier to entry for existing GitHub users and ties ROI to ease of use and seamless integration.

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

Buyer's Guide

GitHub Code Scanning vs. SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube)

January 2025

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Helped 831,265 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)

21st

Average Rating

9.6

Reviews Sentiment

8.4

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

7.5

Number of Reviews

113

Ranking in other categories

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

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2025, in the Static Application Security Testing (SAST) category, the mindshare of GitHub Code Scanning is 0.7%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) is 28.4%, down from 28.8% 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.

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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.

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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."

"The SonarQube dashboard looks great."

"The solution offers a very good community edition."

"Apart from the security point of view, I like that it makes it easy to detect code smells and other issues in terms of code quality and standards."

"The solution's user interface is very user-friendly."

"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."

"There's plenty of documentation available to users."

"SonarQube is a fantastic tool which saves us precious time."

More SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) pros

Cons

"GitHub Code Scanning should add more templates."

"In the next release, I would like to have notifications because now, it is a bit difficult. I think that's a feature which we could add there and it would benefit the users as well. For every full request, they should be able to see their bugs or vulnerability directly on the surface."

"We also use Fortify, which is another tool to find security errors. Fortify is a better security tool. It is better than SonarQube in finding errors. Sometimes, SonarQube doesn't find some of the errors that Fortify is able to find. Fortify also has a community, which SonarQube doesn't have. Its installation is a little bit complex. We need to install a database, install the product, and specify the version of the database and the product. They can simplify the installation and make it easier. We use docker for the installation because it is easier to use. Its dashboard needs to be improved. It is not intuitive. It is hard to understand the interface, and it can be improved to provide a better user experience."

"Their dashboarding is very limited. They can improve their dashboards for multiple areas, such as security review, maintainability, etc. They have all this information, so they should publish all this information on the dashboard so that the users can view the summary and then analyze it further. This is something that I would like to see in the next version."

"I would like to see SonarQube implement a good amount of improvements to the product's security features. Another aspect of SonarQube that could be improved is the search functionality."

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

"There isn't a very good enterprise report."

"The scanning part could be improved in SonarQube. We have used Coverity for scanning, and we have the critical issues reported by Coverity. When we used SonarQube for scanning and looked at the results, it seems that some of them have incorrect input. This part can be improved for C and C++ languages."

"The handling of the contents of Docker container images could be better."

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 costs for this application, for the kind of job it does, are pretty decent."

"People can try the free licenses and later can seek buying plugins/support, etc. once they started liking it."

"I do not know about the pricing as I am using the community edition, which is free. But I compared the pricing with Sigma, and it is higher than SonarQube."

"We are using the Developer Edition and the cost is based on the amount of code that is being processed."

"The free version of SonarQube does everything that we need it to."

"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."

"SonarQube enterprise, I am not sure of the price but from what I understand they are charging a fee. It's is not clear if it is an annual fee or a one-off."

"My guess is that we have a yearly subscription. We use it quite extensively, so a monthly license wouldn't make sense. Yearly subscriptions are usually cheaper. In addition to the standard licensing fee, there is just the cost of running the hardware where it is hosted."

More SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) pricing and cost advice

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

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

16%

Government

Financial Services Firm

Transportation Company

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?

GitHub Code Scanning should add more templates.

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 26% of the time

SonarQube Cloud (formerly SonarCloud) vs GitHub Code Scanning

Compared 22% of the time

Polaris Software Integrity Platform vs GitHub Code Scanning

Compared 8% of the time

Aikido Security vs GitHub Code Scanning

Compared 7% 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 15% of the time

Coverity vs SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube)

Compared 12% of the time

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

Compared 12% of the time

GitHub Advanced Security vs SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube)

Compared 10% of the time

Veracode vs SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube)

Compared 9% of the time

More SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Static Application Security Testing (SAST)

December 2024

Download GitHub Code Scanning product report

Buyer's Guide

SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube)

December 2024

SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) report

Download SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) product report

Also Known As

No data available

Sonar

Learn More

GitHub

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.

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.

Buyer's Guide

GitHub Code Scanning vs. SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube)

January 2025

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

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