GitHub Code Scanning vs SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) comparison

GitHub and Sonar are both solutions in the Static Application Security Testing (SAST) category. GitHub is ranked #17 with an average rating of 8.5, while Sonar is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.3. GitHub holds a 1.3% mindshare in SAST, compared to Sonar’s 22.1% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of GitHub users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 81% of Sonar users who would recommend it.

GitHub Code Scanning

Read 6 GitHub Code Scanning reviews

1,016 Views
965 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

SonarQube Server (formerly ...

Read 116 SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) reviews

43,055 Views
31,861 Comparison Views

81% willing to recommend

GitHub Code Scanning

SonarQube Server (formerly ...

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 15, 2025

SonarQube Server and GitHub Code Scanning compete in the code analysis market. GitHub Code Scanning has an edge due to its GitHub integration, making it a convenient choice for developers, while SonarQube Server is favored for its comprehensive analysis capabilities.

Features: SonarQube Server provides extensive code quality metrics, custom rule creation, and support for over 20 programming languages, making it suitable for diverse projects. GitHub Code Scanning integrates seamlessly with GitHub, providing security vulnerability alerts within the development workflow. It also offers automated code review and code quality tracking directly linked to GitHub Actions.

Room for Improvement: SonarQube Server could improve its setup process to make it simpler and eliminate the need for on-premise configuration. More agile integration with cloud environments could enhance its usability. Licensing terms could be more flexible in dynamic CI/CD environments. GitHub Code Scanning could broaden its support for various development environments outside GitHub. Enhancing security vulnerability analysis to rival specialized tools could improve its offering. Providing advanced customization options for code quality rules can cater to teams with specific needs.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SonarQube Server requires an on-premise setup and offers customizable support catering to enterprise needs. GitHub Code Scanning's cloud-based model minimizes deployment efforts and integrates smoothly with GitHub, making it ideal for teams already using GitHub. GitHub's support caters well to GitHub-centric environments, whereas SonarQube offers personalized support options.

Pricing and ROI: SonarQube Server involves initial setup costs with flexible pricing, offering scalable ROI as projects grow. GitHub Code Scanning, with its subscription model linked to GitHub plans, provides a lower entry barrier. While SonarQube may have higher upfront costs, its ROI reflects in comprehensive code analysis. GitHub Code Scanning offers integration value and potentially lower initial costs for GitHub users.

To learn more, read our detailed GitHub Code Scanning vs. SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

GitHub Code Scanning vs. SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube)

July 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 865,164 peers since 2012

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

GitHub Code Scanning

Ranking in Static Application Security Testing (SAST)

17th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

SonarQube Server (formerly ...

Ranking in Static Application Security Testing (SAST)

1st

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

116

Ranking in other categories

Application Security Tools (1st), Software Development Analytics (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Static Application Security Testing (SAST) category, the mindshare of GitHub Code Scanning is 1.3%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) is 22.1%, down from 27.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Static Application Security Testing (SAST)

Featured Reviews

VishalSingh

Consulting & Solutions, BA/BD in Enterprise IT on Open Source, Red Hat & EDB at KEEN AND ABLE COMPUTERS PVT LTD

Traverses the entire network, scanning every system to determine which ports are open

You can use the tool locally on your system or in the cloud. I rate it a nine out of ten. It's a very good tool for people who want to start using GitHubCode Scanning, especially for software development or team collaboration. GitHubCode Scanning allows teams to collaborate by uploading files to repositories. For example, if someone is developing an application, they can host the code on GitHub Code Scanning. Other developers can then download the code for testing purposes. If bugs are found, fixes can be applied using the GitHub Code Scanningrepository, and everyone on the team can see the changes. Software developers often use GitHub Code Scanning for version control, and it's essential for CI/CD pipelines to work.

Read full review

Sthembiso Zondi

Head of Software Engineering at ronaldmariah@gmail.com

Consistent improvements in code quality and security with effective integration and reliable technical support

The features of SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) that I find most useful are the suggestions received from reviewing the code. When they review the code, they provide suggestions on how to fix it, and we find those very useful from a development perspective. We use SonarQube Server's (formerly SonarQube) centralized management and visualization of code quality metrics on the dashboard because that's the executive dashboard that we send to the executives to show where we are in terms of quality, security, and where the company can improve. We use that for organizational improvement purposes. The ability to tailor metrics tracking in SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) has been beneficial to my team. There are team-specific dashboards which are related to specific repositories they utilize, and we have that aggregative dashboard that shows the whole organization's performance. We can drill down per specific repository, which makes it easier for the team to improve specific things.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"GitHub Code Spaces brings significant value with its simplicity and ease of use."

"We use GitHub Code Scanning mostly for source code management."

"The static code analysis capability in GitHub Code Scanning is a very powerful feature, providing the ability to identify vulnerabilities and ensure code quality."

"The solution helps identify vulnerabilities by understanding how ports communicate with applications running on a system. Ports are like house numbers; to visit someone's house, you must know their number. Similarly, ports are used to communicate with applications. For example, if you want to use an HTTP web server, you must use port 80. It is the port on which the web application or your server listens for incoming requests."

"It's very scalable, very easy to handle, and very intuitive."

"GitHub Code Scanning has positively impacted my organization as it helps us recognize errors and avoid many later issues which may arise."

"One of the most valuable features of SonarQube is its ability to detect code quality during development. There are rules that define various technologies—Java, C#, Python, everything—and these rules declare the coding standards and code quality. With SonarQube, everything is detectable during the time of development and continuous integration, which is an advantage. SonarQube also has a Quality Gate, where the code should reach 85%. Below that, the code cannot be promoted to a further environment, it should be in a development environment only. So the checks are there, and SonarQube will provide that increase. It also provides suggestions on how the code can be fixed and methods of going about this, without allowing hackers to exploit the code. Another valuable feature is that it is tightly integrated with third-party tools. For example, we can see the SonarQube metrics in Bitbucket, the code repository. Once I raise the full request, the developer, team lead, or even the delivery lead can see the code quality metrics of the deliverable so that they can make a decision. SonarQube will also cover all of the top OWASP vulnerabilities, however it doesn't have penetration testing or hacker testing. We use other tools, like Checkmarx, to do penetration testing from the outside."

"Issue Explanations: Documentation with detailed samples. Helps in growing technical knowledge and re-writing logic to conforming solutions."

"The good thing with SonarQube is it covers a lot of issues, it's a very robust framework."

"The depth features I have found most valuable. You receive a quick comprehensive comparison overview regarding the current release and the last release and what type of depths dependency or duplication should be used. This is going to help you to make a more readable code and have more flexibility for the engineers to understand how things should work when they do not know."

"I like that it has a better dashboard compared to Clockwork. It's also stable."

"There is a free version."

"It is an easy tool that you can deploy and configure. After that you can measure the history of your obligation and integrate it with other tools like GitLab or GitHub or Azure DevOps to do quality code analysis."

"I am only interested in the security features in SonarQube. There are plenty of features other features, such as test coverage, code anomalies, and pointer access are handled by the business logic teams. They get the reports and they have to fix them in JIRA or Bugzilla."

More SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) pros

Cons

"When running code scans, GitHub Code Scanning provides recommendations for probable fixes. However, integrating a feature where developers receive real-time highlights of vulnerabilities when checking in or merging a PR would be beneficial."

"GitHub Code Scanning should add more templates."

"At times it becomes very annoying as it highlights certain things which are intuitive. They require code coverage for those aspects as an extra overhead."

"One area for improvement could be the ability to have an AI system digest the reports generated from code scanning and provide a summary. Currently, the reports can be extensive, and users may overlook details, such as outdated libraries, which could be highlighted for attention."

"There is no automation. You need to put the code there and test. You then pull the results and put them back in the development environment. There is no integration with the development environment. We would like it to be integrated with our development environment, which is basically the CI/CD pipeline or the IDE that we have."

"I find it is light on the security side."

"The product's user documentation can be vastly improved."

"There are sometimes security breaches in our code, which aren't be caught by SonarQube. In the security area, SonarCube has to improve. It needs to better compete with other products."

"Their dashboarding is very limited. They can improve their dashboards for multiple areas, such as security review, maintainability, etc. They have all this information, so they should publish all this information on the dashboard so that the users can view the summary and then analyze it further. This is something that I would like to see in the next version."

"After scanning our code and generating a report, it would be helpful if SonarQube could also generate a solution to fix vulnerabilities in the report."

"If I configure a project in SonarQube, it generates a token. When we're compiling our code with SonarQube, we have to provide the token for security reasons. If IP-based connectivity is established with the solution, the project should automatically be populated without providing any additional token. It will be easy to provide just the IP address. It currently supports this functionality, but it makes a different branch in the project dashboard. From the configuration and dashboard point of view, it should have some transformations. There can be dashboard integration so that we can configure the dashboard for different purposes."

"We've been using the Community Edition, which means that we get to use it at our leisure, and they're kind enough to literally give it to us. However, it takes a fair amount of effort to figure out how to get everything up and running. Since we didn't go with the professional paid version, we're not entitled to support. Of course that could be self-correcting if we were to make the step to buy into this and really use it. Then their technical support would be available to us to make strides for using it better."

More SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"GitHub Code Scanning is a moderately priced solution."

"The minimum pricing for the tool is five dollars a month."

"The beauty of this solution is the free open-source version is capable enough in doing pretty much what an enterprise-level version can do."

"SonarQube price is a little bit higher than Kiuwan's. Kiuwan also gives a little bit of flexibility in terms of pricing."

"The product’s price is lower than Veracode’s price."

"We are using the community version of the solution and we plan on purchasing licenses for the upgraded version soon. There is a limitation on how many lines of code can be scanned and this is why we are going to purchase a license for an increased amount."

"The licence is standard open source licensing"

"We're using their free Community Edition version."

"I do not know about the pricing as I am using the community edition, which is free. But I compared the pricing with Sigma, and it is higher than SonarQube."

"I am satisfied with the pricing."

More SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Static Application Security Testing (SAST) solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

865,164 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Government

Financial Services Firm

16%

Computer Software Company

14%

Manufacturing Company

13%

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about GitHub Code Scanning?

We use GitHub Code Scanning mostly for source code management.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for GitHub Code Scanning?

The organization pays for the license of GitHub Code Scanning, but specific price details are unknown.

See all answers

What needs improvement with GitHub Code Scanning?

In my opinion, areas of GitHub Code Scanning that could be improved include that a few things are not visible to us, such as where it stores data and which path. There is a separate team for that w...

See all answers

Is SonarQube the best tool for static analysis?

I am not very familiar with SonarQube and their solutions, so I can not answer. But if you are asking me about which tools that are the best for for Static Code Analysis, I suggest you have a look...

See all answers

Which gives you more for your money - SonarQube or Veracode?

SonarQube is easy to deploy and configure, and also integrates well with other tools to do quality code analysis. SonarQube has a great community edition, which is open-source and free. Easy to use...

See all answers

How would you decide between Coverity and Sonarqube?

We researched Coverity, but in the end, we chose SonarQube. SonarQube is a tool for reviewing code quality and security. It helps to guide our development teams during code reviews by providing rem...

See all answers

Comparisons

Coverity vs GitHub Code Scanning

Compared 24% of the time

SonarQube Cloud (formerly SonarCloud) vs GitHub Code Scanning

Compared 11% of the time

Aikido Security vs GitHub Code Scanning

Compared 9% of the time

HCL AppScan vs GitHub Code Scanning

Compared 7% of the time

OWASP Zap vs GitHub Code Scanning

Compared 5% of the time

More GitHub Code Scanning Competitors

Checkmarx One vs SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube)

Compared 16% of the time

Coverity vs SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube)

Compared 11% of the time

GitHub Advanced Security vs SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube)

Compared 10% of the time

Veracode vs SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube)

Compared 7% of the time

SonarQube Cloud (formerly SonarCloud) vs SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube)

Compared 6% of the time

More SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

GitHub Code Scanning

August 2025

Download GitHub Code Scanning product report

Buyer's Guide

SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube)

July 2025

SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) report

Download SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) product report

Also Known As

No data available

Sonar

Interactive Demo

Demo not available

GitHub

Sonar

Overview

Code scanning is a feature that you use to analyze the code in a GitHub repository to find security vulnerabilities and coding errors. Any problems identified by the analysis are shown in GitHub.

GitHub

SonarQube Server enhances code quality and security via static code analysis. It detects vulnerabilities, improves standards, and reduces technical debt, integrating into CI/CD pipelines.

SonarQube Server is a comprehensive tool for enhancing code quality and security. It offers static code analysis to identify vulnerabilities, improve coding standards, and reduce technical debt. By integrating into CI/CD pipelines, it provides automated checks for adherence to best practices. Organizations use it for code inspection, security testing, and compliance, ensuring development environments with better maintainability and fewer issues.

What are the key features of SonarQube Server?

Support for 20+ languages: Extensive programming language support suitable for diverse coding environments.
Custom coding rules: Allows for tailored rule sets to match specific coding standards.
Flexible quality gates: Define criteria for code acceptance at various intervals.
CI/CD integration: Seamless integration with Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment tools.
Rich interface: User-friendly dashboard with detailed visual insights.

What benefits should users expect from SonarQube Server?

Improved code quality: Enhanced analysis contributes to fewer bugs and improved coding practices.
Security enhancements: Identifies and mitigates security vulnerabilities pre-emptively.
Maintainability: Reduces technical debt, yielding long-term development efficiency.
Customizable: Flexibility in configuration aligns with specific project needs.

Many industries implement SonarQube Server to uphold coding standards, maintain security protocols, and streamline their software development lifecycle. In sectors like finance and healthcare, adhering to regulations and ensuring reliable software is critical, making SonarQube Server invaluable. It is often integrated into CI/CD pipelines, ensuring that code changes meet set standards before deployment. This approach enhances productivity and maintains compliance with industry-specific requirements.

Sonar

Buyer's Guide

GitHub Code Scanning vs. SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube)

July 2025

Free Report: GitHub Code Scanning vs. SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube)

Find out what your peers are saying about GitHub Code Scanning vs. SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

865,164 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our GitHub Code Scanning vs. SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) report.

See our list of best Static Application Security Testing (SAST) vendors.

We monitor all Static Application Security Testing (SAST) reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.