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Aqua Cloud Security Platform vs Sonatype Lifecycle comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 29, 2025

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

Aqua Cloud Security Platform
Ranking in Software Supply Chain Security
17th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
16
Ranking in other categories
Cloud and Data Center Security (19th), Container Security (25th), Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP) (21st), Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) (19th), DevSecOps (13th)
Sonatype Lifecycle
Ranking in Software Supply Chain Security
6th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
46
Ranking in other categories
Application Security Tools (13th), Software Composition Analysis (SCA) (6th), AI Software Development (15th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Software Supply Chain Security category, the mindshare of Aqua Cloud Security Platform is 3.0%, down from 4.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sonatype Lifecycle is 6.7%, down from 8.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Software Supply Chain Security Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Sonatype Lifecycle6.7%
Aqua Cloud Security Platform3.0%
Other90.3%
Software Supply Chain Security
 

Featured Reviews

Burak AKCAGUN - PeerSpot reviewer
Business Development Manager at Axoft Ukraine
A robust and cost-effective solution, excelling in scalability, on-premises support, and responsive technical support, making it well-suited for enterprises navigating stringent regulatory environment
The most crucial aspect is runtime protection, specifically image scanning before preproduction and deployment. Customers find it invaluable to have the ability to check for vulnerabilities in an image before deployment, similar to a sandbox environment. This feature ensures that customers can identify any potential issues with the image, such as misconfigurations or vulnerabilities, before integrating it into their workloads and infrastructure. In their source pipeline, companies can identify issues before deploying changes. This is crucial because customers prefer resolving any problems or misconfigurations before the deployment process. Software change security, including GSPM Cloud, is a key feature customers seek in their infrastructure.
@RahulVerma  - PeerSpot reviewer
Presales Engineer at Rah Infotech Pvt Ltd
Compliance used to slow us down. Sonatype Lifecycle turned it into an automated, streamlined step that accelerates delivery instead of blocking it.
Sonatype Lifecycle already does a nice job, but as you use it, you can’t help but notice a few spots where it could feel even smoother. Imagine opening it and immediately seeing a clearer, friendlier dashboard that tells you exactly what deserves your attention without digging around. As you move through your workflow, it would be great if the tool connected more naturally with what you’re already using, so everything just flows. And when an issue pops up, instead of leaving you guessing, it could guide you through what to do next in a way that feels simple and supportive. Even having a bit more visibility into anything happening behind the scenes would make the experience feel more complete. It’s already strong, but with touches like these, it could feel even more helpful and intuitive in everyday use.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable feature is the security."
"The DTA, which stands for Dynamic Threat Analysis, allows me to analyze Docker images in a sandbox environment before deployment, helping me anticipate risks."
"Aqua Security allowed us to gain visibility into the vulnerabilities that were present in the container images, that were being rolled out, the amount of risk that we were introducing to the platform, and provided us a look into the container environment by introducing access control mechanisms. In addition, when it came to runtime-level policies, we could restrict container access to resources in our environment, such as network-level or other application-level access."
"The most valuable features are that it's easy to use and manage."
"Their sandboxing service is also really good."
"The most valuable feature of Aqua Security is the scanner."
"The solution was very user-friendly."
"Aqua Security helps us to check the vulnerability of image assurance and check for malware."
"It scans and gives you a low false-positive count... The reason we picked Lifecycle over the other products is, while the other products were flagging stuff too, they were flagging things that were incorrect. Nexus has low false-positive results, which give us a high confidence factor."
"This ensures we can address issues proactively."
"Sonatype support is quite responsive. When we needed something, we could reach out and set up a meeting. They provide the best support possible."
"The violation reports provided by Lifecycle are key, giving specific details on the types of violations and identifying the component within the application."
"The most valuable features of the Sonatype Nexus Lifecycle are the evaluation of the unit test coverage, vulnerability scanning, duplicate code lines, code smells, and unnecessary loops."
"The quality or the profiles that you can set are most valuable. The remediation of issues that you can do and how the information is offered is also valuable."
"For us, it's seeing not only the licensing and security vulnerabilities but also seeing the age of the open-sources included within our software. That allows us to take proactive steps to make sure we're updating the software to versions that are regularly maintained and that don't have any vulnerabilities."
"Among its valuable features, it's easy to handle and easy configure, it's user-friendly, and it's easy to map and integrate."
 

Cons

"Aqua Security could improve the forwarding of logging into Splunk and into other tools, it should be easier."
"The solution could improve user-friendliness."
"Aqua Security lacks a lot in reporting."
"The user interface could be improved, especially in terms of organization and clarity."
"Since we are working from home, we would like to have the proper training for Aqua."
"They want to release improvements to their product to work with other servers because now there are more focused on the Kubernetes environment. They need to improve the normal servers. I would like to have more options."
"Aqua Security could provide more open documentation so that their learning resources can be more easily accessed and searched through online. Right now, a lot of the documentation is closed and not available to the public."
"We would like to see an improvement in the overview visibility that this solution offers."
"One of the things that we specifically did ask for is support for transitive dependencies. Sometimes a dependency that we define in our POM file for a certain library will be dependent on other stuff and we will pull that stuff in, then you get a cascade of libraries that are pulled in. This caused confusing to us at first, because we would see a component that would have security ticket or security notification on it and wonder "Where is this coming in from?" Because when we checked what we defined as our dependencies it's not there. It didn't take us too long effort to realize that it was a transitive dependency pulled in by something else, but the question then remains "Which dependency is doing that?""
"In the beginning, we sometimes struggle to access the customer environment. The customer must issue the required certificates because many customers use cell phone certificates, and Sonatype needs a valid CA certificate."
"On the security side, I think there's a lot of development needed. There are many security tools on the market, like open-source ones, that Sonatype doesn't integrate with."
"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."
"Since Nexus Repository just keeps on adding the .jar artifacts whenever there is a build, whenever an application is going up, there is always a space issue on the server. That is one of the things that we are looking for Nexus to notify us about: if it is running out of space."
"The biggest thing that I have run into, which there are ways around, is being able to easily access the auditing data from a third-party tool; being able to pull all of that into one place in a cohesive manner where you can report off of that. We've had a little bit of a challenge with that. There are a number of things available to work with, to help with that in the tool, but we just haven't explored them yet."
"The price can be improved."
"They could do with making more plugins for the more common integration engines out there. Right now, it supports automation engine by Jenkins but it doesn't fully support something like TeamCity."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Dealing with licensing costs isn't my responsibility, but I know that the licenses don't depend on the number of users, but instead are priced according to your workload."
"It comes at a reasonable cost."
"They were reasonable with their pricing. They were pretty down-to-earth about the way they pitched their product and the way they tried to close the deal. They were one of the rare companies that approached the whole valuation in a way that made sense for our company, for our needs, and for their own requirements as well... They will accommodate your needs if they are able to understand them and they're stated clearly."
"Aqua Security is not cheap, and it's not very expensive, such as Splunk, they are in the middle."
"The pricing of this solution could be improved."
"Cost is a drawback. It's somewhat costly."
"We're pretty happy with the price, for what it is delivering for us and the value we're getting from it."
"There are additional costs in commercial offerings for add-ons such as Nexus Container or IDE Advanced Toolkit. They come with additional fees or licenses."
"Pricing is comparable with some of the other products. We are happy with the pricing."
"Its pricing is competitive within the market. It's not very cheap, it's not very expensive."
"It's expensive, but you get what you pay for. There were no problems with the base license and how they do it. It was transparent. You don't have to worry. You can scan to your heart's delight."
"In addition to the license fee for IQ Server, you have to factor in some running costs. We use AWS, so we spun up an additional VM to run this. If the database is RDS that adds a little bit extra too. Of course someone could run it on a pre-existing VM or physical server to reduce costs. I should add that compared to the license fee, the running costs are so minimal they had no effect on our decision to use IQ Server."
"Lifecycle, to the best of my recollection, had the best pricing compared with other solutions."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
23%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
9%
Financial Services Firm
27%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
Government
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise10
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business13
Midsize Enterprise8
Large Enterprise29
 

Questions from the Community

What do you think of Aqua Security vs Prisma Cloud?
Aqua Security is easy to use and very manageable. Its main focus is on Kubernetes and Docker. Security is a very valuable feature and their speed of integration is very good. The initial setup was ...
How does Sonatype Nexus Lifecycle compare with SonarQube?
We like the data that Sonatype Nexus Lifecycle consistently delivers. This solution helps us in fixing and understanding the issues a lot quicker. The policy engine allows you to set up different t...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Sonatype Nexus Lifecycle?
From my experience, the licensing side is pretty straightforward to handle. Most of the cost and pricing considerations really come down to how the solution is deployed. Since we work with partners...
What needs improvement with Sonatype Nexus Lifecycle?
Sonatype Lifecycle already does a nice job, but as you use it, you can’t help but notice a few spots where it could feel even smoother. Imagine opening it and immediately seeing a clearer, friendli...
 

Also Known As

Aqua Security Platform, CloudSploit, Argon
Sonatype Nexus Lifecycle, Nexus Lifecycle
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

HPE Salesforce Telstra Ellie Mae Cathay Pacific HomeAway
Genome.One, Blackboard, Crediterform, Crosskey, Intuit, Progress Software, Qualys, Liberty Mutual Insurance
Find out what your peers are saying about Aqua Cloud Security Platform vs. Sonatype Lifecycle and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,707 professionals have used our research since 2012.