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Qualys Web Application Scanning vs SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 9, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
5.5
Qualys Web Application Scanning improved visibility, reduced costs and failure rates, and increased ROI with automation, despite licensing challenges.
Sentiment score
7.2
SonarQube Server boosts code quality and security, aiding teams in flaw detection and integration with tools like Jenkins.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
5.0
Qualys Web Application Scanning support is mostly praised for responsiveness, with minor concerns about higher-tier access and engagement.
Sentiment score
6.1
SonarQube's support receives mixed reviews; the active community and detailed documentation are crucial, especially for free users.
Once we purchase the license, we have access to top-notch support.
I have dealt with Qualys's technical support, and any enhancements are challenging.
The community support is quite effective.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.7
Qualys Web Application Scanning is scalable, handling multiple licenses and users, though some issues arise with concurrent scans.
Sentiment score
7.0
SonarQube Server effectively supports scalability but may require more resources and careful setup for larger projects.
It is licensed for assets, so we just contact the team for additional licenses if needed.
At one point, there was a limitation on reporting for 100,000 assets at a time.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.5
Qualys Web Application Scanning is praised for stability and reliability, with users rating it highly and few issues reported.
Sentiment score
7.7
SonarQube Server is stable and reliable, with minor issues, enhanced in newer versions, and requires accurate configuration.
 

Room For Improvement

Qualys Web Application Scanning users seek improved XSS detection, simpler interface, better pricing, and enhanced integration features.
Users seek faster analysis, improved language support, better integration, enhanced security features, and refined usability and documentation.
With the growing reliance on AI, Qualys Web Application Scanning should be updated to handle AI-based applications and LLM-based attacks.
One area of improvement is reducing false positives by prioritizing agent findings over remote findings when there is a corresponding local agent finding.
I would like it to be cheaper because it is a bit expensive compared to competitors like Tenable Nessus.
 

Setup Cost

Qualys Web Application Scanning offers competitive pricing and flexible licensing, though some users seek improved cost-effectiveness.
SonarQube Server offers free and paid editions, with scalable pricing for advanced features and enterprise-grade support.
They offer discounts on bulk licenses, making it cheaper compared to competitors like Veracode DAST.
I find it a bit expensive compared to other competitors.
The freemium version of SonarQube Server offers excellent value, especially compared to the high costs of Snyk.
 

Valuable Features

Qualys Web Application Scanning offers Selenium integration, effective threat detection, and seamless CI/CD integration with a user-friendly interface.
SonarQube Server excels with multi-language support, CI integration, security checks, and an open-source model with strong community backing.
It effectively detects vulnerabilities like the OWASP Top 10 without any issues in reporting.
It is recognized as one of the best tools for web application security from a development perspective.
Credential scanning is very effective because it goes in-depth into the system, crawling the pages, and reporting on vulnerabilities.
Some of the static code analysis capabilities are the most beneficial.
 

Categories and Ranking

Qualys Web Application Scan...
Ranking in Application Security Tools
12th
Ranking in Static Application Security Testing (SAST)
9th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
38
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
SonarQube Server (formerly ...
Ranking in Application Security Tools
1st
Ranking in Static Application Security Testing (SAST)
1st
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
114
Ranking in other categories
Software Development Analytics (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Application Security Tools category, the mindshare of Qualys Web Application Scanning is 2.0%, down from 2.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) is 25.1%, down from 26.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Application Security Tools
 

Featured Reviews

SubhajitAich - PeerSpot reviewer
A stable solution that can be used for infrastructure vulnerability scanning and web application scanning
Qualys Web Application Scanning is very complex to use, and its graphical interface is not very user-friendly. Compared to other solutions like Tenable and Rapid7, you need to navigate a lot to get the actual results out of Qualys Web Application Scanning. If I have to search for one thing within the entire console, I have to look for it randomly. It's not very easy and very comfortable to find something. Overall, it's a very good solution, but it will be very good if the tool is more user-friendly.
Wang Dayong - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Application Security Tools solutions are best for your needs.
844,944 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Government
8%
Financial Services Firm
17%
Computer Software Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Government
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Qualys Web Application Scanning?
The vulnerability management feature is a strong one. And also the patch management feature.
What needs improvement with Qualys Web Application Scanning?
I would like it to be cheaper because it is a bit expensive compared to competitors like Tenable Nessus ( /products/tenable-nessus-reviews ). After using the product for a year, I might have more s...
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...
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...
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...
 

Also Known As

Qualys WAS
Sonar
 

Interactive Demo

Demo not available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

BskyB, Cartagena, ClearPoint Learning Systems, Connect Group, du, Fortrex Technologies, HBOR, HDI, Highlights for Children, The Lithuanian State Enterprise Centre of Registers, City of Miami Beach, Microsoft, MidlandHR, MSCI Inc., Northern Arizona University, Ofgem, Olympus Europa, PhoneFactor, RTL Nederland, ThousandEyes, VGZ Organisatie B.V.
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Find out what your peers are saying about Qualys Web Application Scanning vs. SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.
844,944 professionals have used our research since 2012.