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CodeSonar vs Contrast Security Protect comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 8, 2024

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

CodeSonar
Ranking in Application Security Tools
30th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
7
Ranking in other categories
Static Code Analysis (10th)
Contrast Security Protect
Ranking in Application Security Tools
34th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
5.8
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Application Security Tools category, the mindshare of CodeSonar is 1.1%, down from 1.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Contrast Security Protect is 1.1%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Application Security Tools Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
CodeSonar1.1%
Contrast Security Protect1.1%
Other97.8%
Application Security Tools
 

Featured Reviews

Mathieu ALBRESPY - PeerSpot reviewer
Intigration Developer at ez-Wheel
Nice interface, quick to deploy, and easy to expand
This is the first time I've used this kind of software. It was the only one we could apply to analyze with MISRA rules. At my new company, I tried to use Klocwork. I tried to use it, just once so I cannot compare it exactly with CodeSonar. I also have a plugin for my Visual Studio and I try to make it work. It's not easy, however, I don't think that we have this kind of functionality with CodeSonar. It can do some incremental analysis. However, since this feature is also available on CodeSonar, it would be a good idea to have a plugin on Visual Studio just to have a quick analysis.
ToddMcAlister - PeerSpot reviewer
Lead Application and Data Security Engineer at a insurance company with 5,001-10,000 employees
It provides us with more in-depth visibility into ongoing attacks.
I rate Contrast Security Protect eight out of 10. Overall, it's a solid product, but I deduct a couple of points because of the interface and some shortcomings in the reporting. If you have a large enterprise where you're dealing with a lot of servers, then it makes sense not to use the internal MySQL database. You should use something like Oracle or Microsoft SQL, but if you don't have many transactions, the embedded MySQL database works great.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"There is nice functionality for code surfing and browsing."
"What I like best about CodeSonar is that it has fantastic speed, analysis and configuration times."
"The solution is very stable and we have used it for a long time with no issues."
"The most valuable features of CodeSonar were all the categorized classes provided, and reports of future bugs which might occur in the production code."
"CodeSonar’s most valuable feature is finding security threats."
"It has been able to scale."
"The tool is very good for detecting memory leaks."
"CodeSonar has helped our organization because it detects dead and nonusable parts of code to create a more optimized code."
"The Protect solution allows applications to continue to run, even with known vulnerabilities, but will report or block attempts to exploit the vulnerabilities."
"The solution has excellent real-time capabilities."
"Contrast Security's support is great. They're willing to spend a lot of time on your problem."
"The product gives a few false positives. We get 99 percent true positives."
"Protect provides us with more in-depth visibility into ongoing attacks."
 

Cons

"The scanning tool for core architecture could be improved."
"CodeSonar could improve by having better coding rules so we did not have to use another solution, such as MISRA C."
"In terms of areas for improvement, the use case for CodeSonar was good, but compared to other tools, it seems CodeSonar isn't a sound static analysis tool, and this is a major con I've seen from it."
"It would be beneficial for the solution to include code standards and additional functionality for security."
"In a future release, the solution should upgrade itself to the current trends and differentiate between the languages. If there are any classifications that can be set for these programming languages that would be helpful rather than having everything in the generic category."
"It was expensive."
"CodeSonar could improve by having better coding rules so we did not have to use another solution, such as MISRA C."
"The MISRA guidelines were not appropriately reported and there were some flags or errors."
"We're not using it much anymore because we had some performance issues."
"Protect's reporting GUI is very basic. To get all statuses from the APIs, we needed to write our own KPI dashboard to provide reports."
"There's room for improvement in the initial setup."
"Contrast Security Protect needs to improve integration."
"There's room for improvement in the initial setup."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution's price depends on the number of licenses needed and the source code for the project."
"Our organization purchased a license to use the solution."
"Pricing is a bit costly."
"The application’s pricing is high compared to other tools."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
24%
Computer Software Company
8%
University
7%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Financial Services Firm
20%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Construction Company
7%
Computer Software Company
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise2
No data available
 

Also Known As

No data available
Contrast Protect
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Viveris, Micrel Medical Devices, Olympus, SOFTEQ, SONY
Williams-Sonoma, Autodesk, HUAWEI, Chromeriver, RingCentral, Demandware.
Find out what your peers are saying about CodeSonar vs. Contrast Security Protect and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
893,221 professionals have used our research since 2012.