SonarQube vs Tenable.io Web Application Scanning comparison

SonarSource Sàrl and Tenable are both solutions in the Application Security Tools category. SonarSource Sàrl is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.2, while Tenable is ranked #15 with an average rating of 8.5. SonarSource Sàrl holds a 16.9% mindshare in AS, compared to Tenable’s 1.4% mindshare. Additionally, 83% of SonarSource Sàrl users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of Tenable users who would recommend it.

SonarQube

Read 134 SonarQube reviews

38,374 Views
26,862 Comparison Views

83% willing to recommend

Tenable.io Web Application ...

Read 18 Tenable.io Web Application Scanning reviews

2,165 Views
1,754 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

SonarQube

Tenable.io Web Application ...

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 8, 2026

SonarQube and Tenable.io Web Application Scanning compete in code analysis and vulnerability detection. SonarQube leads in language support and integration, while Tenable.io is stronger in vulnerability scanning for web applications.

Features: SonarQube offers integration with Continuous Integration pipelines, custom coding rules, and support for over 20 programming languages. Tenable.io provides detailed reporting, seamless cloud integration, and prioritization of vulnerabilities, aiding in efficient threat management.

Room for Improvement: SonarQube needs to improve its interface, offer comprehensive security scanning, and support more recent languages. Tenable.io could enhance dashboard usability, allow more report customization, and offer more user-friendly scanning options.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SonarQube supports hybrid, on-premises, and public cloud deployments, appealing to varied infrastructure needs, yet lacks official support for community editions. Tenable.io is easy to deploy in public cloud environments but less flexible for on-premises use, with adequate customer service that could benefit from more transparency.

Pricing and ROI: SonarQube's open-source model is cost-effective, especially with its free edition, though the enterprise edition is expensive. Tenable.io is considered costly for smaller businesses. Both show improved ROI through better code quality and reduced vulnerabilities, yet SonarQube’s pricing is more attractive for budget-conscious organizations.

To learn more, read our detailed SonarQube vs. Tenable.io Web Application Scanning Report (Updated: February 2026).

Buyer's Guide

SonarQube vs. Tenable.io 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

SonarQube

Ranking in Application Security Tools

1st

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

134

Ranking in other categories

Static Application Security Testing (SAST) (1st), Software Development Analytics (1st)

Tenable.io Web Application ...

Ranking in Application Security Tools

15th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

5.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Application Security Tools category, the mindshare of SonarQube is 16.9%, down from 26.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Tenable.io Web Application Scanning is 1.4%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Security Tools Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
SonarQube	16.9%
Tenable.io Web Application Scanning	1.4%
Other	81.7%

Application Security Tools

Featured Reviews

KarthikHarpanhalli

Sr Software Engineering Supervisor at Mozarc Medical

Gains control over rule customization and achieves reliable vulnerability assessment

The deployment process took me about 2 or 3 hours to deploy SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube), although I do not remember exactly since it was done about 2 years back. Currently, about 10 of my developers are using SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) in my company. I do not have plans to increase the usage of SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) in the future as there will not be any requirement to increase. I am a senior software engineer and supervisor at Mozark Medical. My corporate email address is karthik.k.a.r.t.h.i.k.h.a.r.p.a.n.h.a.l.l.i@mozarkmedical.com. Overall, I would rate SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) as a 9 out of 10.

Read full review

Jonathan-Pereira

Cyber Security Architect at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees

Centralized license management transforms asset manipulation based on functions and improves security posture

Now that the license is centralized, it's a significant feature to manipulate assets based on their functions. It provides a centralized view from end-to-end to its assets' identities and vulnerabilities. One of the greatest features is Kubernetes. The automated scanning capability is pretty standard in the market, and Tenable's prioritization engine helps improve the security posture.

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

"This solution is simple to use and can be quickly deployed."

"I find SonarQube Cloud to be very user-friendly with an easy-to-use interface."

"The solution offers a very good community edition."

"It is a very good tool for analysis despite its limitations."

"It provides you with many features, as it does with the premium model, but there are still extra features that can be purchased if needed."

"The reports from SonarCloud are very good."

"The solution can verify vulnerabilities, code smells, and hotspots. It makes the software more secure and it helps make a junior or novice developer sharper."

"SonarQube has a lot of value, it reviews the basic coding standards and security vulnerabilities of code that help to reduce issues."

More SonarQube pros

"I think Tenable.io Web Application Scanning is the best option on the market at the moment."

"Tenable.io Web Application Scanning provides a detailed report, identifying functions that are complex and need to be more maintainable and readable."

"Tenable provides the end analysis results covering all the published vulnerabilities and information on the market."

"All the features are valuable to us as they offer cutting-edge scanning methods and address the latest issues with a contemporary approach. Tenable.io Web Application Scanning is highly stable. I rate it a nine out ten. Since the solution works on the Cloud, it's highly scalable. I rate the scalability a nine out of ten. The setup of the solution is straightforward. The Return on Investment is substantial. I recommend the solution to all."

"It collects the vulnerabilities on the hostnames and sends them to the Tenable.io cloud. Tenable has its own cloud where Tenable.io is running, but there are many connectors to other cloud solutions. Tenable can do vulnerability scanning for other cloud managers such as Azure, Amazon, and so on."

"Now that the license is centralized, it's a significant feature to manipulate assets based on their functions."

"We can get detailed information about vulnerabilities."

"Our customers adopt this solution because of the replication testing and the vulnerability assessment it can do. It is a multi-faceted product."

More Tenable.io Web Application Scanning pros

Cons

"SonarQube could be improved with more dynamic testing—basically, now, it's a static code analysis scan. For example, when the developer writes the code and does the corresponding unit test, he can cover functional and non-functional. So the SonarQube could be improved by helping to execute unit tests and test dynamically, using various parameters, and to help detect any vulnerabilities. Currently, it'll just give the test case and say whether it passes or fails—it won't give you any other input or dynamic testing. They could use artificial intelligence to build a feature that would help developers identify and fix issues in the early stages, which would help us deliver the product and reduce costs. Another area with room for improvement is in regard to automating things, since the process currently needs to be done manually."

"We called support and complained but have not received any information as we use the free version. We had to fix it on our own and could not escalate it to the tool's developer."

"During the setup process, we only had one issue related to the number of available files. To perform the analysis, you have quite a lot of available file handles, so we had to increase that limit."

"I've been told by the developers that the solution is too limited. It's not testing enough within the containers."

"This solution finds issues that are similar to what is found by Checkmarx, and it would be nice if the overlap could be eliminated."

"CI/CD pipeline is part of a whole chain of design, development, and production, and it's becoming increasingly crucial to optimize the various tools across different stages. However, it's still a silo approach because the full integration is missing. This isn't just an issue with SonarCloud. It's a general problem with tooling."

"The handling of the contents of Docker container images could be better."

"I need a solution that can bring together three key areas: vulnerabilities, static scanning, and misarchitecture. Currently, to achieve our expectations, we have to use more than one product, as some products excel at scanning for vulnerabilities but are poor at checking code quality."

More SonarQube cons

"The solution's dashboards could be improved and made more user-friendly."

"The platform's technical support services could be better."

"The cloud and the on-premises versions have their own controllers, and there is no way to centrally manage controllers."

"It isn't easy to manage vulnerabilities in Tenable."

"Tenable.io Web Application Scanning is not very user-friendly and you need a lot of information to get proper reports. The tool's support is not very responsive."

"Tenable.io Web Application Scanning could improve by offering faster fuzzing."

"They have a general dashboard for web application scanning, but the dashboards and reporting can be improved. They probably have some features in their roadmap."

"Tenable.io Web Application Scanning conducts a general scan, which wastes time. The scan needs to be specific."

More Tenable.io Web Application Scanning cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We're using an older version because it is the open-source flavor of it and we can continue using it at no cost. We're not paying any licensing at all, which was another factor in choosing this route so that we can learn and grow with it and not be committed to licenses and other similar things. If we choose to get something else, we have to relearn, but we don't have to relicense. Basically, we're paying no license costs."

"SonarQube is a cost-effective solution."

"The free version of SonarQube does everything that we need it to."

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

"This is open source."

"I requested this license for one million lines of code and they accepted this."

"The price of SonarCloud is not expensive, it goes by the lines of code. 1 million lines per code are approximately 4,000 USD per year. If you need 2 million lines of code you would double the annual cost."

"The price of the solution could be reduced."

More SonarQube pricing and cost advice

"The application is extremely affordable. There are no additional costs involved with licensing. We switched to Tenable.io Web Application Scanning from other solutions due to pricing."

"For Tenable.io Web Application Scanning, it comes to around 6,50,000 Indian rupees, plus taxes."

"I rate the product's pricing a four out of ten."

"It follows the same licensing scheme as Tenable.io and Tenable. sc."

"The price of the solution is reasonable compared to the competitors. The license cost is based on the number of users and the annual usage."

"Tenable.io Web Application Scanning is expensive for small businesses."

"The pricing is okay."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

14%

Manufacturing Company

14%

Computer Software Company

13%

Government

Financial Services Firm

13%

Computer Software Company

10%

Government

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	41
Midsize Enterprise	24
Large Enterprise	79

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	7
Midsize Enterprise	5
Large Enterprise	7

Questions from the Community

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

What do you like most about Tenable.io Web Application Scanning?

The most effective feature of the product is the ability to scan the entire environment.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Tenable.io Web Application Scanning?

If there were a solution, I would like to see automation and an integrated remediation solution for vulnerability or patch management.

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering Tenable.io Web Application Scanning?

I do not understand what API approach means; I do not understand this term. I think Tenable.io Web Application Scanning is the best option on the market at the moment. My review rating for this pro...

See all answers

Comparisons

Checkmarx One vs SonarQube

Compared 28% of the time

Snyk vs SonarQube

Compared 9% of the time

GitHub Advanced Security vs SonarQube

Compared 6% of the time

Coverity Static vs SonarQube

Compared 5% of the time

Semgrep vs SonarQube

Compared 4% of the time

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Acunetix vs Tenable.io Web Application Scanning

Compared 12% of the time

CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security vs Tenable.io Web Application Scanning

Compared 8% of the time

Qualys Web Application Scanning vs Tenable.io Web Application Scanning

Compared 8% of the time

PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional vs Tenable.io Web Application Scanning

Compared 7% of the time

OpenText Core Application Security vs Tenable.io Web Application Scanning

Compared 6% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

SonarQube

January 2026

Download SonarQube product report

Buyer's Guide

Application Security Tools

February 2026

Tenable.io Web Application Scanning report

Download Tenable.io Web Application Scanning product report

Also Known As

Sonar, SonarQube Cloud

No data available

Interactive Demo

SonarSource Sàrl

Demo not available

Tenable

Overview

SonarQube leads automated code review, enhancing code quality and security in AI-driven SDLCs. It analyzes pull requests, providing developers with actionable feedback and AI-driven fixes before code merges. Trusted by top enterprises, it supports SaaS and self-managed deployments.

SonarQube supports a wide range of programming languages and integrates seamlessly with CI/CD tools like Jenkins. It is renowned for its static code analysis, code coverage, and security vulnerability detection. While its open-source foundation and scalability are praised, users seek enhanced integration across multiple languages, better security features, and improved documentation. Despite challenges, its ability to automate code inspections and ensure compliance with coding standards makes it essential in software development processes, facilitating continuous improvement.

What are the most important features?

Language Support: Extensive support for multiple programming languages.
Custom Coding Rules: Allows defining project-specific rules.
Integration: Seamlessly works with Jenkins and CI/CD pipelines.
Quality Gates: Simplifies monitoring code quality.
Dashboards: Facilitates easy monitoring and management.
Static Code Analysis: Detects issues early in development.
Security Detection: Identifies vulnerabilities automatically.

What benefits should users look for?

Improved Code Quality: Enhances reliability and maintainability.
Security Assurance: Strengthens code against vulnerabilities.
Technical Debt Reduction: Ensures cleaner, maintainable code.
Efficient Feedback: Speeds up development cycles.
Standards Compliance: Aids in adhering to best practices.

In industries like finance, healthcare, and automotive, SonarQube is leveraged for static code analysis, automating code inspections, and ensuring compliance with stringent standards. Teams integrate it into their CI/CD pipelines to maintain high-quality code, identify security vulnerabilities, and enhance code maintainability.

SonarSource Sàrl

Tenable.io Web Application Scanning safely, accurately and automatically scans your web applications, providing deep visibility into vulnerabilities and valuable context to prioritize remediation.

Tenable

Sample Customers

Snowflake, Booking.com, Deutsche Bank, AstraZeneca, and Ford Motor Company.

IMDEX

Buyer's Guide

SonarQube vs. Tenable.io Web Application Scanning

February 2026

Free Report: SonarQube vs. Tenable.io Web Application Scanning

Find out what your peers are saying about SonarQube vs. Tenable.io Web Application Scanning and other solutions. Updated: February 2026.

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