SAST tools › Checkmarx alternatives
Checkmarx alternatives, and how it compares with Veracode
Pick by what you can't give up. To stay on-premises or air-gapped: Black Duck Coverity or SonarQube Server. For a published price: Semgrep or GitHub Code Security, both $30 a developer a month. For the closest like-for-like contract: Veracode. Checkmarx and Veracode both sell by quote only, so get the published prices below before you negotiate.
What Checkmarx and Veracode charge
Checkmarx's pricing page lists five packages, and each one ends in "Get A Custom Quote":
- Essentials: SAST, SCA, API Security and ASPM.
- Professional: Essentials plus malicious package protection, repository health, DAST and container security.
- Enterprise: adds IaC security, secrets detection and Codebashing training.
- Start with SAST, "ideal for existing on-prem customers", and Start with Supply Chain.
The AI features, Fusion (which adds frontier-model reasoning to SAST), Triage Assist and Remediation Assist, run on prepaid Checkmarx Credits. When the balance hits zero those actions pause until you buy more; there are no automatic overage charges. Veracode publishes no prices either: veracode.com/pricing redirects to its platform page.
| Tool | Where it runs | Covers | Price | Keep it in mind when |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Checkmarx One (reference) | Cloud; on-premises SAST is rules-only | Java to COBOL and PL/SQL | Quote | You're comparing against it |
| Veracode | Veracode's platform | 100+ languages and frameworks; source, binary and hybrid scans | Quote | You must scan code you have no source for |
| Black Duck Coverity | On-premises, air-gapped, Kubernetes; Polaris as SaaS | 22 languages, 250+ frameworks | Quote | C/C++, safety-certified or offline code |
| SonarQube Server | Self-hosted | 40 languages (Developer), 48 (Enterprise) | Per instance per year by lines of code; Community Build free | You want quality and security in one self-hosted tool |
| GitHub Code Security | GitHub.com or GitHub Enterprise Server | CodeQL | $30 per active committer a month | All code is on GitHub |
| Semgrep | Cloud platform; open-source CLI runs anywhere | GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, Azure DevOps; self-managed Git on Enterprise only | $30 per contributor (Code); free to 10 | You want to write your own rules |
| Snyk | Cloud | Code, dependencies, containers, IaC | $25 per developer on Team (5–10); credits above | Developers will triage their own findings |
| Aikido | Cloud | SAST and AI SAST, SCA, secrets, containers, DAST | $350 a month for 10 users (Basic); $1,750 for 25 (Pro) | A smaller team wants one flat price |
| Mend AppSec | Cloud | SAST, SCA, containers | Up to $1,000 per developer a year | Dependency risk is the bigger worry |
If you have to stay on-premises
Read the Checkmarx fine print first: its on-premises SAST "uses a rules-based scanning engine", and the AI engine, Findings Analysis and Fusion are available only on Checkmarx One in the cloud. If you're on-premises today, you're already on the older engine. Black Duck says Coverity runs fully air-gapped, including on Kubernetes, and is certified by TÜV SÜD under IEC 61508-3 and qualified for use up to ASIL D under ISO 26262 and Level A under DO-178C, which matters for automotive and avionics code. SonarQube Server is the self-hosted choice for most other teams, and GitHub Code Security runs on GitHub Enterprise Server if your Git is self-hosted already.
If you scan legacy code
Checkmarx lists COBOL and PL/SQL among its languages. Veracode's supported-languages table includes COBOL-85, COBOL 2002, RPG III and IV, and Visual Basic 6. SonarQube Server's Enterprise and Data Center editions add COBOL, PL/I, RPG, JCL and VB6 to the Developer list, which makes Sonar the third option for mainframe or IBM i code. Check any other tool on the main comparison against your language list before a trial.
Checkmarx vs Veracode
| Checkmarx One | Veracode | |
|---|---|---|
| What it scans | Source, pulled from GitHub, GitLab, Azure and Bitbucket, no build needed | Source, binaries or both; Static Analysis docs ask for an executable set of files, with autopackaging to help |
| AI | Fusion (frontier reasoning from Anthropic via Amazon Bedrock); Findings Analysis, which Checkmarx says cuts false positives by 60% | Veracode Fix for AI code remediation |
| Also sells | SCA, DAST, API, containers, IaC, secrets | SCA, DAST, containers, package firewall, ASPM |
| Price | Quote; AI on prepaid credits | Quote |
The practical difference is the input. Checkmarx needs only repository access, so setup is quicker for teams with many small services. Veracode's binary scanning covers third-party or vendor code you received without source. Its packaging steps take more work, though its SAST page now also offers a source scan without compiling.
Published prices to set against a quote: 50 developers
- Semgrep Code: 50 × $30 × 12 = $18,000 a year; with Supply Chain at another $30, $36,000.
- GitHub Code Security: 50 × $30 × 12 = $18,000; with Secret Protection ($19), $29,400. Add $12,600 a year for GitHub Enterprise seats if you don't have them (GitHub Advanced Security pricing).
- Snyk Enterprise, Snyk Code only: about 365 credits per active contributor a year at $1, so about $18,250.
- Mend AppSec: up to 50 × $1,000 = $50,000 a year.
These cover SAST alone or SAST plus dependencies, without DAST, training or posture management, so a full Checkmarx or Veracode quote will run higher. If the quote for SAST alone is well above $18,000 for 50 developers, these are the numbers to bring.
Where IonWarp fits
IonWarp, from the company that publishes this site, is an AI pull-request reviewer, not a Checkmarx replacement. Its Security Review reads the GitHub pull requests that touch auth, input, data access or secrets for logic, auth and injection flaws, and has no rule engine, no dependency or CVE scanning, no compliance reports and no self-hosted version; it checks secrets only in each pull request's changes. On its own 13-pull-request security benchmark, the default setup found 10 of 18 known issues, against 11 for Qodo, a small sample. Pro is $49 a month for a 5-seat workspace. Use it beside an enterprise scanner if your code is on GitHub. Visit IonWarp
Checkmarx pricing · Veracode SAST · Black Duck Coverity
Questions
How much does Checkmarx cost?
Checkmarx doesn't publish prices. Every package on its pricing page, Essentials, Professional, Enterprise, Start with SAST and Start with Supply Chain, ends in Get a Custom Quote, and the AI features run on prepaid Checkmarx Credits, also by quote.
Is Veracode better than Checkmarx?
Neither is better across the board. Veracode can scan compiled binaries, which helps when you lack source for part of an application; Checkmarx scans source straight from GitHub, GitLab, Azure and Bitbucket without a build. Run both on the same repositories during the trial and compare true findings, not totals.
What are the alternatives to Veracode?
The same list applies: Checkmarx One for the closest like-for-like contract, Black Duck Coverity for C and C++ and air-gapped sites, SonarQube Server for self-hosting, and Semgrep or GitHub Code Security for a published per-developer price.
Related
- Snyk alternatives: the developer-first end of the same decision.
- AI SAST: what AI-native scanners such as Fusion, Corgea and ZeroPath add.
About this page
Published by Winding AI, Inc., the company that makes IonWarp, an AI pull-request reviewer for GitHub. We earn nothing from links to other tools; links to IonWarp carry a tag so IonWarp can count visits from this site. Visits are counted with Google Analytics. If a price or fact here is wrong, write to support@winding.ai.