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Fortify Static Code Analyzer pros and cons

Vendor: OpenText
4.1 out of 5

Pros & Cons summary

Buyer's Guide

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Prominent pros & cons

PROS

Flexibility is highly valued as it can be implemented in various ways, fully automated within a DevOps pipeline or for ad hoc scenarios.
Excellent documentation and taxonomy provide detailed information on vulnerabilities and updates with rule packs released quarterly.
The ability to integrate seamlessly with CI/CD pipelines and various development tools, including IDEs and Jenkins, is a significant asset.
Fortify Software Security Center effectively combines security professionals and developers by integrating scan results for collaborative problem-solving.
It provides accurate detection of vulnerabilities, valuable best practices, and examples for fixing code issues, which enhances software security effectively.

CONS

Fortify Static Code Analyzer often generates false positives, complicating vulnerability prioritization.
Licensing costs for Fortify are high and can be prohibitive.
Excluding files from scans is problematic, particularly when using certain IDEs like IntelliJ.
Fortify struggles to support all programming languages, requiring updates to remain current.
The learning curve is steep, and users face challenges in effectively utilizing Fortify's features.
 

Fortify Static Code Analyzer Pros review quotes

AA
Oct 17, 2023
I like Fortify Software Security Center or Fortify SSC. This tool is installed on each developer's machine, but Fortify Software Security Center combines everything. We can meet there as security professionals and developers. The developers scan their code and publish the results there. We can then look at them from a security perspective and see whether they fixed the issues. We can agree on whether something is a false positive and make decisions.
reviewer2317233 - PeerSpot reviewer
Nov 30, 2023
The Software Security Center, which is often overlooked, stands out as the most effective feature.
reviewer2322627 - PeerSpot reviewer
Dec 13, 2023
Automating the Jenkins plugins and the build title is a big plus.
Learn what your peers think about Fortify Static Code Analyzer. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2025.
842,651 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Maurizio Garofalo - PeerSpot reviewer
Nov 21, 2023
It's helped us free up staff time.
TH
Mar 10, 2021
Its flexibility is most valuable. It is such a flexible tool. It can be implemented in a number of ways. It can do anything you want it to do. It can be fully automated within a DevOps pipeline. It can also be used in an ad hoc, special test case scenario and anywhere in between.
VF
Dec 6, 2023
The reference provided for each issue is extremely helpful.
JB
Nov 13, 2023
You can really see what's happening after you've developed something.
DA
Jul 13, 2021
We write software, and therefore, the most valuable aspect for us is basically the code analysis part.
Aphiwat Leetavorn. - PeerSpot reviewer
Mar 21, 2025
I recommend this product due to its good pricing, extensive language support, valuable features, and additional features like Fortify Academy.
Vishal Dhamke - PeerSpot reviewer
Sep 5, 2023
The integration Subset core integration, using Jenkins is one of the good features.
 

Fortify Static Code Analyzer Cons review quotes

AA
Oct 17, 2023
It can be tricky if you want to exclude some files from scanning. For instance, if you do not want to scan and push testing files to Fortify Software Security Center, that is tricky with some IDEs, such as IntelliJ. We found that there is an Exclude feature that is not working. We reported that to them for future fixing. It needs some work on the plugins to make them consistent across IDEs and make them easier.
reviewer2317233 - PeerSpot reviewer
Nov 30, 2023
Fortify's software security center needs a design refresh.
reviewer2322627 - PeerSpot reviewer
Dec 13, 2023
Fortify Static Code Analyzer has a bit of a learning curve, and I don't find it particularly helpful in narrowing down the vulnerabilities we should prioritize.
Learn what your peers think about Fortify Static Code Analyzer. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2025.
842,651 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Maurizio Garofalo - PeerSpot reviewer
Nov 21, 2023
Not all languages are supported in Fortify.
TH
Mar 10, 2021
I know the areas that they are trying to improve on. They've been getting feedback for several years. There are two main points. The first thing is keeping current with static code languages. I know it is difficult because code languages pop up all the time or there are new variants, but it is something that Fortify needs to put a better focus on. They need to keep current with their language support. The second thing is a philosophical issue, and I don't know if they'll ever change it. They've done a decent job of putting tools in place to mitigate things, but static code analysis is inherently noisy. If you just take a tool out of the box and run a scan, you're going to get a lot of results back, and not all of those results are interesting or important, which is different for every organization. Currently, we get four to five errors on the side of tagging, and it notifies you of every tiny inconsistency. If the tool sees something that it doesn't know, it flags, which becomes work that has to be done afterward. Clients don't typically like it. There has got to be a way of prioritizing. There are a ton of filter options within Fortify, but the problem is that you've got to go through the crazy noisy scan once before you know which filters you need to put in place to get to the interesting stuff. I keep hearing from their product team that they're working on a way to do container or docker scanning. That's a huge market mover. A lot of people are interested in that right now, and it is relevant. That is definitely something that I'd love to see in the next version or two.
VF
Dec 6, 2023
The price can be improved.
JB
Nov 13, 2023
Their licensing is expensive.
DA
Jul 13, 2021
It comes with a hefty licensing fee.
Aphiwat Leetavorn. - PeerSpot reviewer
Mar 21, 2025
The deployment of Fortify Static Code Analyzer needs to be simplified.
Vishal Dhamke - PeerSpot reviewer
Sep 5, 2023
The generation of false positives should be reduced.