GitLab vs SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) comparison

GitLab and Sonar are both solutions in the Application Security Tools category. GitLab is ranked #9 with an average rating of 8.6, while Sonar is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.1. GitLab holds a 2.9% mindshare in AS, compared to Sonar’s 24.5% mindshare. Additionally, 97% of GitLab users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 81% of Sonar users who would recommend it.

GitLab

Read 84 GitLab reviews

3,506 Views
2,947 Comparison Views

97% willing to recommend

SonarQube Server (formerly ...

Read 114 SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) reviews

32,190 Views
26,996 Comparison Views

81% willing to recommend

GitLab

SonarQube Server (formerly ...

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 9, 2025

SonarQube Server and GitLab both compete in the software development tools category, with SonarQube excelling in code quality analysis and GitLab leading in CI/CD capabilities. GitLab holds the upper hand due to its superior integration with containers and comprehensive CI/CD features.

Features: SonarQube Server offers extensive language support, custom coding rules, and easy integration with Jenkins. It provides features like Quality Gates, code scanning, and the ability to create custom quality profiles. GitLab excels with its CI/CD capabilities, container integration, and efficient code branch management. Its merge request approvals and repository management are additional highlights.

Room for Improvement: SonarQube Server could enhance its security features, expand language support, and improve integration with JIRA. It also needs to address analysis speed and reduce false positives. GitLab could improve project management tool integration, offer better pricing for small teams and enhance security scanning features. Some users find the pricing and feature limitations compared to competitors worth addressing.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SonarQube Server supports flexible deployment in on-premises and private cloud environments but could improve customer service response times. GitLab offers broader deployment options, including public and hybrid clouds. Its customer support is generally efficient, but improvement in documentation clarity is suggested.

Pricing and ROI: SonarQube Server is cost-effective, especially using the Community Edition, but prices can rise with commercial plugins. It offers good ROI by improving code quality with minimal costs. GitLab's pricing is higher, yet it provides significant value with its robust platform features. GitLab’s open-source tier allows trial exploration before committing to a paid plan.

To learn more, read our detailed GitLab vs. SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

GitLab vs. SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube)

April 2025

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Helped 851,604 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:

ROI

Sentiment score

7.6

GitLab improves ROI by increasing efficiency, reducing deployment time, and enhancing DevOps through cost-saving, automation, and vulnerability management.

Sentiment score

7.2

SonarQube Server boosts code quality and security, aiding teams in flaw detection and integration with tools like Jenkins.

We have saved time significantly, reducing deployment time from four hours to five minutes per deployment.

Andrea PICCININI

IT Software Architect at ANAC - Autorità Nazionale Anticorruzione

Migrating to GitLab is bringing time-saving benefits, and everything is easier to automate.

reviewer2603940

IT Manager at a tech company with 5,001-10,000 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the GitLab report

No quotes available

For more quotes and insights, download the SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) report

Customer Service

Sentiment score

6.8

GitLab's support varies by license; paid users praise responsiveness, while free version users rely on community forums and documentation.

Sentiment score

6.1

SonarQube's support receives mixed reviews; the active community and detailed documentation are crucial, especially for free users.

I have interacted with architects for some advice during the implementation, and they were prompt in their response.

Mikhael Ibrahim

Platform Engineer & Manager at a computer software company with 51-200 employees

I have had meetings where they taught me, explained things, and provided guidance for starting from scratch.

reviewer2603940

IT Manager at a tech company with 5,001-10,000 employees

We have rarely needed to escalate issues to technical support since GitLab usually runs seamlessly.

Gaurav Chandel

AWS DevOps/ Site Reliability Engineer at Tata Consultancy

For more quotes and insights, download the GitLab report

The community support is quite effective.

Damyan Bogoev

Distinguish Engineer at Gtmhub

For more quotes and insights, download the SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) report

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score

7.4

GitLab's scalable container architecture supports diverse environments, flexible deployment, and smooth integration, despite some configuration and scaling challenges.

Sentiment score

7.0

SonarQube Server effectively supports scalability but may require more resources and careful setup for larger projects.

It has all the features required for our coding and deployment needs, which makes it scalable to our changing requirements.

Sarfaraz Khan

Senior Application Developer at IBM

For scaling, other deployment options from GitLab's side need to be adopted.

Rohit Kesharwani

Manager, Engineering at 7-Eleven

In terms of scalability, GitLab in the cloud is easy to scale.

Andrew Schetinin

Chief Technology Officer at Acclym

For more quotes and insights, download the GitLab report

No quotes available

For more quotes and insights, download the SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) report

Stability Issues

Sentiment score

8.2

GitLab is highly stable and reliable, with minor issues mainly under heavy load or during updates.

Sentiment score

7.7

SonarQube Server is stable and reliable, with minor issues, enhanced in newer versions, and requires accurate configuration.

The updates are frequent and demanding, happening at least once a week due to security reasons.

Andrew Schetinin

Chief Technology Officer at Acclym

I have not encountered any performance or stability issues with GitLab so far.

Gaurav Chandel

AWS DevOps/ Site Reliability Engineer at Tata Consultancy

For more quotes and insights, download the GitLab report

No quotes available

For more quotes and insights, download the SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) report

Room For Improvement

GitLab users seek improved CI/CD automation, integrations, user interface, project management, security, pricing, and support for enhanced usability.

Users seek faster analysis, improved language support, better integration, enhanced security features, and refined usability and documentation.

It is essential to conduct proper testing, such as unit tests and code coverage, within the SDLC pipelines.

Rohit Kesharwani

Manager, Engineering at 7-Eleven

It would be beneficial to have a user-friendly interface for setting up these configurations, instead of just writing YAML files.

reviewer2603940

IT Manager at a tech company with 5,001-10,000 employees

Improvements are needed for stability, as the system tends to degrade over a few days and often requires a restart.

Andrew Schetinin

Chief Technology Officer at Acclym

For more quotes and insights, download the GitLab report

No quotes available

For more quotes and insights, download the SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) report

Setup Cost

GitLab provides flexible pricing with open-source access and paid tiers, catering to different enterprise needs and budgets.

SonarQube Server offers free and paid editions, with scalable pricing for advanced features and enterprise-grade support.

The pricing of GitLab is reasonable, aligning with what I consider to be average compared to competitors.

reviewer2603940

IT Manager at a tech company with 5,001-10,000 employees

The price is high, and it limits user accessibility.

Andrea PICCININI

IT Software Architect at ANAC - Autorità Nazionale Anticorruzione

The pricing and cost are on par with other tools and are neither too expensive nor cheap.

Andrew Schetinin

Chief Technology Officer at Acclym

For more quotes and insights, download the GitLab report

The freemium version of SonarQube Server offers excellent value, especially compared to the high costs of Snyk.

Damyan Bogoev

Distinguish Engineer at Gtmhub

For more quotes and insights, download the SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) report

Valuable Features

GitLab excels in UI, CI/CD, code management, and integration, offering user-friendly, efficient, and scalable development and deployment features.

SonarQube Server excels with multi-language support, CI integration, security checks, and an open-source model with strong community backing.

As we implement automated testing and DevSecOps, it speeds up the process by forty to sixty percent.

Mikhael Ibrahim

Platform Engineer & Manager at a computer software company with 51-200 employees

The Ultimate version offers enhanced features for security scanning through DAST and SAST analysis, which have greatly benefitted our project workflow.

Andrea PICCININI

IT Software Architect at ANAC - Autorità Nazionale Anticorruzione

By integrating GitLab as a DevOps platform, we have enhanced agility, improved our time to market, and different teams can work collaboratively on various projects.

Rohit Kesharwani

Manager, Engineering at 7-Eleven

For more quotes and insights, download the GitLab report

Some of the static code analysis capabilities are the most beneficial.

Damyan Bogoev

Distinguish Engineer at Gtmhub

For more quotes and insights, download the SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) report

Categories and Ranking

GitLab

Ranking in Application Security Tools

9th

Ranking in Static Application Security Testing (SAST)

7th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Build Automation (1st), Release Automation (2nd), Rapid Application Development Software (11th), Software Composition Analysis (SCA) (5th), Enterprise Agile Planning Tools (2nd), Fuzz Testing Tools (2nd), DevSecOps (3rd)

SonarQube Server (formerly ...

Ranking in Application Security Tools

1st

Ranking in Static Application Security Testing (SAST)

1st

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

114

Ranking in other categories

Software Development Analytics (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Application Security Tools category, the mindshare of GitLab is 2.9%, up from 2.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) is 24.5%, down from 27.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Security Tools

Featured Reviews

Rohit Kesharwani

Manager, Engineering at 7-Eleven

Improved agility and time to market with CI/CD enhancements

The CI/CD pipelines in GitLab ( /products/gitlab-reviews ) are highly valuable. Another important feature is the single source of repository, allowing efficient repository management and source code management. GitLab provides manageability by allowing us to manage source code effectively through separate repositories. Additionally, GitLab enables the creation of individual CI/CD pipelines for each repository, making software more agile. By integrating GitLab as a DevOps platform, we have enhanced agility, improved our time to market, and different teams can work collaboratively on various projects.

Read full review

Chetan Jayatheertha

DevOps Manager at a computer software company with 5,001-10,000 employees

Has a great quality gate feature and improves the code coverage in your core base

We would like to have more visibility and more documentation, starting with the installation. It needs to be more standardized and explain all the features. We'd also like to get an idea of the level of stability we can get for our larger-sized projects. The notifications from the channel queue can be improved including email notifications. We currently rely on getting those notifications passed onto us and that should not be the case. The customization of different languages would also be helpful. If all the above could be implemented, SonarQube would be the best vulnerability security scanning tool.

Read full review

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851,604 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

22%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Computer Software Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

17%

Computer Software Company

15%

Manufacturing Company

13%

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about GitLab?

I find the features and version control history to be most valuable for our development workflow. These aspects provide us with a clear view of changes and help us manage requests efficiently.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for GitLab?

The pricing of GitLab is reasonable, aligning with what I consider to be average compared to competitors.

See all answers

What needs improvement with GitLab?

Certain features in Jira are not available in GitLab, such as the functionality to have weights at the milestone and epic levels. Hopefully, these features will be resolved with work items in GitLa...

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

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Compared 14% of the time

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Compared 5% of the time

Tekton vs GitLab

Compared 5% of the time

TeamCity vs GitLab

Compared 4% of the time

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Checkmarx One vs SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube)

Compared 13% of the time

Coverity vs SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube)

Compared 13% of the time

GitHub Advanced Security vs SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube)

Compared 11% of the time

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

Compared 8% of the time

Fortify on Demand vs SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube)

Compared 3% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

GitLab

May 2025

Download GitLab product report

Buyer's Guide

SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube)

April 2025

SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) report

Download SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) product report

Also Known As

Fuzzit

Sonar

Interactive Demo

Demo not available

GitLab

Sonar

Overview

GitLab is a complete DevOps platform that enables teams to collaborate and deliver software faster.

It provides a single application for the entire DevOps lifecycle, from planning and development to testing, deployment, and monitoring.

With GitLab, teams can streamline their workflows, automate processes, and improve productivity.

GitLab

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

Sample Customers

1. NASA 2. IBM 3. Sony 4. Alibaba 5. CERN 6. Siemens 7. Volkswagen 8. ING 9. Ticketmaster 10. SpaceX 11. Adobe 12. Intuit 13. Autodesk 14. Rakuten 15. Unity Technologies 16. Pandora 17. Electronic Arts 18. Nordstrom 19. Verizon 20. Comcast 21. Philips 22. Deutsche Telekom 23. Orange 24. Fujitsu 25. Ericsson 26. Nokia 27. General Electric 28. Cisco 29. Accenture 30. Deloitte 31. PwC 32. KPMG

Information Not Available

Buyer's Guide

GitLab vs. SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube)

April 2025

Free Report: GitLab vs. SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube)

Find out what your peers are saying about GitLab vs. SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.

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