CodeSonar vs Qualys Web Application Scanning comparison

CodeSecure and Qualys are both solutions in the Application Security Tools category. CodeSecure is ranked #28, while Qualys is ranked #16 with an average rating of 7.7. CodeSecure holds a 1.2% mindshare in AS, compared to Qualys’s 1.7% mindshare. Additionally, 87% of CodeSecure users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 88% of Qualys users who would recommend it.

CodeSonar

Read 7 CodeSonar reviews

2,674 Views
1,845 Comparison Views

87% willing to recommend

Qualys Web Application Scan...

Read 40 Qualys Web Application Scanning reviews

4,027 Views
2,537 Comparison Views

88% willing to recommend

CodeSonar

Qualys Web Application Scan...

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 8, 2024

Qualys Web Application Scanning and CodeSonar offer strong competition in the cybersecurity sector with each catering to different aspects of security needs. Qualys has the upper hand in user support and accessibility, while CodeSonar takes the lead in detailed code analysis, offering value for in-depth security pursuits.

Features: Qualys Web Application Scanning provides comprehensive vulnerability detection, seamless integration capabilities, and a user-friendly interface. CodeSonar focuses on static code analysis, depth in identifying potential security risks, and detailed examination of code.

Room for Improvement: Qualys Web Application Scanning could work on enhancing real-time report customization, speeding up scanning processes, and expanding integration options. CodeSonar might benefit from a simpler learning curve, more intuitive navigation, and enhanced UI design.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Qualys Web Application Scanning is known for straightforward deployment and reliable customer support, making it suitable for non-technical users. CodeSonar requires more technical understanding during deployment but offers a supportive service team for specialists familiar with in-depth analysis needs.

Pricing and ROI: Qualys generally offers a reasonable setup cost, providing good ROI with its comprehensive web security coverage suitable for organizations seeking broader security solutions. CodeSonar's higher initial investment is justified by the depth of its analysis, making it a beneficial long-term investment for companies focusing on detailed code security. Qualys is preferred for its quicker ROI, whereas CodeSonar's pricing aligns with more profound security analysis investments.

To learn more, read our detailed CodeSonar vs. Qualys Web Application Scanning Report (Updated: February 2026).

Buyer's Guide

CodeSonar vs. Qualys Web Application Scanning

February 2026

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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

28th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Static Code Analysis (10th)

Qualys Web Application Scan...

Ranking in Application Security Tools

16th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Static Application Security Testing (SAST) (13th)

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Application Security Tools category, the mindshare of CodeSonar is 1.2%, down from 1.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Qualys Web Application Scanning is 1.7%, down from 1.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Security Tools Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Qualys Web Application Scanning	1.7%
CodeSonar	1.2%
Other	97.1%

Application Security Tools

Featured Reviews

Mathieu ALBRESPY

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.

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AnkitSharma13

Security Officer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

Web scanning needs improvement but offers good vulnerability detection

The downside of Qualys Web Application Scanning is that it cannot crawl automatically. If I provide an IP address and a login form, it does basic testing, but it doesn't go deep as IBM AppScan does. If Qualys Web Application Scanning could improve its crawling capability, it would be more user-friendly. Qualys Web Application Scanning does IP-level testing, requiring direct input of credentials, and can only scan a few pages to provide known generic vulnerabilities, which isn't as beneficial from my point of view. The Vulnerability Management also relies heavily on version numbers and will flag vulnerabilities based on the component version, but it doesn't check if a real fix exists, leading to flags on components that actually have workarounds available.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It has been able to scale."

"The tool is very good for detecting memory leaks."

"There is nice functionality for code surfing and browsing."

"The most valuable feature of CodeSonar is the catching of dead code. It is helpful."

"What I like best about CodeSonar is that it has fantastic speed, analysis and configuration times. Its detection of all runtime errors is also very good, though there were times it missed a few. The configuration of logs by CodeSonar is also very fantastic which I've not seen anywhere else. I also like the GUI interface of CodeSonar because it's very user friendly and the tool also shows very precise logs and results."

"CodeSonar’s most valuable feature is finding security threats."

"The most valuable features of CodeSonar were all the categorized classes provided, and reports of future bugs which might occur in the production code. Additionally, I found the buffer overflow and underflow useful."

"The simplicity of exporting reports and the simplicity and clarity of the reports included with the product are good."

"Licensing is the most valuable. Qualys provides the best licensing for companies. It is the best product for the development purposes of web applications. The product has a lot of integrations."

"This product is designed for easy scalability and can easily scale up without major challenges."

"Qualys Web Application Scanning is accurate and provides minimal false positives."

"The vulnerability management feature is a strong one. And also the patch management feature."

"The advantage of Qualys Web Application Scanning lies in its user-friendly dashboard and appealing reports, which are useful for presentation to leadership."

"We can do scanning and submit reports straight to the customers when there are new vulnerabilities, then tell them whether they are affected or not."

"You can integrate your Burp Suite results and create an integrated report. Also, the way it shows the results - threats and exploit details - makes remediation very easy."

More Qualys Web Application Scanning pros

Cons

"It would be beneficial for the solution to include code standards and additional functionality for security."

"The scanning tool for core architecture could be improved."

"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."

"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. Right now, in the market, people prefer sound static analysis tools, so I would have preferred if CodeSonar was developed into a sound static analysis tool formally, in terms of its algorithms, so then you can see it extensively used in the market because at the moment, here in India, only fifty to sixty customers use CodeSonar. If the product is developed into a sound static analysis tool, it could compete with Polyspace, and from its current fifty customers, that number could go up to a hundred."

"There could be a shared licensing model for the users."

"It was expensive."

"CodeSonar could improve by having better coding rules so we did not have to use another solution, such as MISRA C."

"We procured around 110 licenses for Web Application Scanning, but we have issues running concurrent scans. I don't currently have the option to trigger scans for all 100-plus websites. The default limit is around 10 conference scans. It's not very scalable, to be honest, because of the limitation that they put on concurrent scans."

"New features need to be added, specifically LLM-based solutions."

"The product should allow users to upload their payloads."

"We have many websites. We don't force scanning on all of them at once because it's taking some time."

"The UI is not user-friendly and you don't have a yearly reporting facility where you can slice and dice in different jobs."

"Qualys Web Application Scanning is very complex to use, and its graphical interface is not very user-friendly."

"In terms of the Policy Compliance model which they currently have, not all the platforms are being covered. If they could improve on the Policy Compliance model, since there are policies which are benchmarked against it, this will be helpful for us."

"The downside of Qualys Web Application Scanning is that it cannot crawl automatically."

More Qualys Web Application Scanning cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Our organization purchased a license to use the solution."

"The solution's price depends on the number of licenses needed and the source code for the project."

"Pricing is a bit costly."

"The application’s pricing is high compared to other tools."

"We are on an annual license for the solution and the pricing could be more affordable."

"The product pricing is fair and reasonably priced."

"Qualys WAS' pricing is competitive."

"Qualys has an IT-based licensing based on a yearly license, which is a good way of handling it. However, in some cases, when we do the PCI scanning, the host will not like the scanning and we lose the IT license. So, this could be improved."

"The product has a very good licensing model."

"Pricing was reasonable and competitive. It was not too far above the other products."

"Qualys Web Application Scanning's pricing is a bit expensive compared to other solutions available in the market."

"The cost is $30,000 USD for one year to cover WAS (Web Application Security) and the VM (Virtual Machine) security in a company with 200 employees."

More Qualys Web Application Scanning pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

25%

University

11%

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

14%

Manufacturing Company

12%

Computer Software Company

12%

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	5
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	2

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	8
Midsize Enterprise	6
Large Enterprise	27

Questions from the Community

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What do you like most about Qualys Web Application Scanning?

The vulnerability management feature is a strong one. And also the patch management feature.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Qualys Web Application Scanning?

Regarding pricing, I think for personal use, it is costly, but if organizations are ready to pay, then it is fine as they are using it.

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What needs improvement with Qualys Web Application Scanning?

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Comparisons

SonarQube vs CodeSonar

Compared 30% of the time

Coverity Static vs CodeSonar

Compared 20% of the time

Polyspace Code Prover vs CodeSonar

Compared 7% of the time

Helix QAC vs CodeSonar

Compared 5% of the time

Klocwork vs CodeSonar

Compared 4% of the time

More CodeSonar Competitors

OWASP Zap vs Qualys Web Application Scanning

Compared 10% of the time

SonarQube vs Qualys Web Application Scanning

Compared 8% of the time

Checkmarx SAST vs Qualys Web Application Scanning

Compared 7% of the time

Veracode vs Qualys Web Application Scanning

Compared 5% of the time

Acunetix vs Qualys Web Application Scanning

Compared 5% of the time

More Qualys Web Application Scanning Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Application Security Tools

January 2026

Download CodeSonar product report

Buyer's Guide

Qualys Web Application Scanning

January 2026

Download Qualys Web Application Scanning product report

Also Known As

No data available

Qualys WAS

Overview

GrammaTech enables organizations to develop software applications more efficiently, on-budget, and on-schedule by helping to eliminate harmful defects that can cause system failures, enable data breaches, and ultimately increase corporate liabilities in today’s connected world. GrammaTech is the developer of CodeSonar, the most powerful source and binary code analysis solution available today. Extraordinarily precise, CodeSonar finds, on average, 2 times more serious defects in software than other static analysis solutions. Designed for organizations with zero tolerance for defects and vulnerabilities in their applications, CodeSonar provides static analysis for applications where reliability and security are paramount - widely used by software developers in avionics, medical, automotive, industrial control, and other mission-critical applications. Some of GrammaTech's customers include Toyota, GE, Hyundai, Kawasaki, LG, Lockheed Martin, NASA, Northrop Grumman, Panasonic, and Samsung.

CodeSecure

Qualys Web Application Scanning (WAS) is a fully cloud-based web application security scanner. The scanner will automatically crawl periodically and test web applications to discover potential vulnerabilities, including cross-site scripting (XSS) and SQL injection. The consistent testing equips the automated service to generate consistent results, lessen false positives, and offer the ability to scale to protect thousands of websites effortlessly.

Qualys Web Application Scanning is bundled with different scanning technology to carefully scan websites for malware infections and will send notifications to website owners to assist in preventing blacklisting and brand reputation damage. As digital transformation takes place in various organizations, Qualys WAS gives organizations the ability to track and document their web app security status through its interactive reporting capabilities.

Qualys WAS empowers organizations to remediate any web application vulnerabilities quickly. Some of the key tools offered are:

Deep Scanning: All apps and APIs on your internal network and public cloud are covered by Qualys WAS deep scanning to show you any visible vulnerabilities.
DevSec Ops Tool: Detect security issues in your code while still in app development stages and generate comprehensive reports.
Comprehensive Discovery: Discover and catalog new and unknown web apps in your network.
Malware Detection: Scan a website, identify vulnerabilities, and receive alerts to any infections.

Benefits of Qualys Web Application Scanning

Qualys Web Application Scanning offers many benefits, including:

Quick Deployment: Requires no infrastructure or software to upkeep.
Effortless Scalability: Effortlessly launch a deep scan and protect thousands of websites.
Centralized Management: Manage and mend all web app vulnerabilities through a single interface.
Excellent Integration Capabilities: Integrates with Qualys Web App Firewall (WAF) for a single-click virtual patching of found vulnerabilities.
Respond to Threats Immediately: Qualys Continuous Monitoring offers the user a hands-free service by automatically launching scanning and sending notifications of a potential threat.
Cost-effective Solution: Data is analyzed in real time as Qualys WAS is an end-to-end solution; this helps avoid costs associated with managing multiple security vendors.

Reviews from Real Users

Qualys Web Application Scanning stands out among its competitors for a variety of reasons. Two of those reasons are its progressive scan and quick detection of vulnerabilities.

P.K., a senior software developer at a tech vendor, writes, "The feature that I have found most valuable is the progressive scan. It is good. It's done in 24 hours."

Nagaraj S., lead cybersecurity engineer at a tech service company, notes, "I have found the detection of vulnerabilities tool thorough with good results and the graphical display output to be wonderful and full of colors. It allows many types of outputs, such as bar and chart previews."

Qualys

Sample Customers

Viveris, Micrel Medical Devices, Olympus, SOFTEQ, SONY

BskyB, Cartagena, ClearPoint Learning Systems, Connect Group, du, Fortrex Technologies, HBOR, HDI, Highlights for Children, The Lithuanian State Enterprise Centre of Registers, City of Miami Beach, Microsoft, MidlandHR, MSCI Inc., Northern Arizona University, Ofgem, Olympus Europa, PhoneFactor, RTL Nederland, ThousandEyes, VGZ Organisatie B.V.

Buyer's Guide

CodeSonar vs. Qualys Web Application Scanning

February 2026

Free Report: CodeSonar vs. Qualys Web Application Scanning

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