SAST tools › SonarQube vs Snyk
SonarQube vs Snyk: quality-first or security-first
SonarQube is a SAST tool built around code quality: one scan reports bugs, code smells, vulnerabilities and security hotspots, and the price follows your lines of code. Snyk is security-first: Snyk Code for your code and Snyk Open Source for your dependencies, priced per developer. Choose SonarQube for quality gates with security included, Snyk when vulnerable packages are the bigger worry, or run SonarQube with Dependabot.
Side by side
| SonarQube | Snyk | |
|---|---|---|
| Built around | Code quality, with security rules in the same scan | Security: code, dependencies, containers, IaC |
| SAST | Yes vulnerabilities and security hotspots | Yes Snyk Code |
| Dependency scanning (SCA) | Enterprise add-on Advanced Security | Yes Snyk Open Source, every plan |
| Secrets | Yes in the Team plan's analysis | Enterprise credits |
| Priced by | Lines of code in private projects | Contributing developers |
| Free tier | Private projects up to 50,000 lines | 5 projects, 100 Snyk Code tests a month |
| Entry paid plan | Team from $34 a month for 100,000 lines, under 50 developers | Team $25 a developer a month, 5 to 10 developers |
| Self-hosted | SonarQube Server (priced per instance by lines) and the free Community Build | Hosted; no self-managed edition on its plans page |
| Git hosts | GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket Cloud, Azure DevOps | GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, Azure Repos |
| AI features | Hunter Agent (logic and auth flaws) and Remediation Agent on Enterprise | Snyk Evo on Enterprise |
Is SonarQube a SAST tool?
Yes. SonarQube reads source code without running it, which is the definition of SAST, and its security rules raise two kinds of finding. Vulnerabilities are problems to fix. Security hotspots are security-sensitive code a person should review: after review you either mark it safe or fix it. Sonar's documentation says it is gradually moving hotspot rules over to vulnerabilities to simplify this. What SonarQube doesn't do below Enterprise is look inside your dependencies, which is the half of application security Snyk started with.
What each costs for the same team
Because one counts lines and the other counts people, the cheaper tool depends on your shape:
- 5 developers, 80,000 lines. SonarQube Cloud Team: $34 a month (the 100,000-line tier). Snyk Team: 5 × $25 = $125 a month. SonarQube is cheaper, but the $125 also buys Snyk Open Source.
- 5 developers, 40,000 lines. SonarQube: $0, under the 50,000-line free tier. Snyk Free covers 100 Code tests a month; past that, Team is $125.
- 25 developers, 90,000 lines. SonarQube Team: still $34 a month, as Team covers teams under 50 developers. Snyk: Team stops at 10, so Enterprise credits, about $760 a month for Snyk Code alone at the rate card and about $1,521 with Open Source (the sums are on the Snyk pricing page).
For a large codebase SonarQube's line-based price rises; Sonar sells other line increments but doesn't print them on the page, and its self-hosted Server editions show no figures either. Ask for a quote with your real line count from the largest branch, which is what Sonar bills.
Which to pick
SonarQube fits when
- You want one quality gate on every pull request: bugs, code smells and security together.
- The team is large and the codebase small, so a line-based price wins.
- You need to self-host: the Community Build is free.
Snyk fits when
- Vulnerable open-source packages are your main risk.
- You also scan containers and infrastructure-as-code.
- You have 5 to 10 developers and want everything for $25 a head.
Plenty of teams run both: SonarQube as the quality gate and Snyk, or free Dependabot on GitHub, for dependencies. Neither reliably finds broken business logic; Sonar is pitching its Hunter Agent at that on Enterprise and sells Gitar AI Code Review at $20 a user a month, billed annually, and other AI reviewers such as IonWarp read GitHub pull requests for missing auth checks and similar flaws. IonWarp has no dependency scanning and no quality gate, so it sits beside either tool, not in place of one. SAST vs SCA explains the split between code and dependency scanning.
Questions
Is SonarQube a SAST tool?
Yes. SonarQube analyses source code without running it and reports security vulnerabilities and security hotspots alongside bugs and code smells. Dependency scanning (SCA) is separate: it comes with the Advanced Security add-on on Enterprise.
What is the difference between Snyk and SonarQube?
SonarQube is built around code quality, with security rules in the same scan, and is priced by lines of code. Snyk is built around security: Snyk Code for your own code and Snyk Open Source for dependencies on every plan, priced per contributing developer.
Can SonarQube detect dead code?
Partly. Its rules flag unused private methods, private fields, local variables and parameters (for Java, rules S1144, S1068, S1481 and S1172) as code smells. That covers dead code visible inside a class or file.
Related
- SAST vs SCA: why SonarQube and Snyk overlap only halfway.
- Snyk pricing: Free, Team and Enterprise credits, worked out.
About this page
Published by Winding AI, Inc., the company that makes IonWarp, an AI pull-request reviewer. 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.