Sonatype Lifecycle vs Tenable.io Web Application Scanning comparison

Sonatype and Tenable are both solutions in the Application Security Tools category. Sonatype is ranked #13 with an average rating of 8.4, while Tenable is ranked #15 with an average rating of 8.5. Sonatype holds a 2.0% mindshare in AS, compared to Tenable’s 1.4% mindshare. Additionally, 90% of Sonatype users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of Tenable users who would recommend it.

Sonatype Lifecycle

Read 46 Sonatype Lifecycle reviews

7,257 Views
4,282 Comparison Views

90% 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

Sonatype Lifecycle

Tenable.io Web Application ...

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 8, 2024

Sonatype Lifecycle and Tenable.io Web Application Scanning compete in the application security space. Sonatype has the upper hand in ease of deployment and customer support, while Tenable.io offers a more comprehensive feature set.

Features: Sonatype Lifecycle focuses on detailed dependency analysis, proactive vulnerability identification, and a favorable costing model. Tenable.io offers extensive scanning capabilities, integration flexibility, and feature depth, providing a robust security solution.

Room for Improvement: Sonatype could benefit from enhanced reporting capabilities, broader integration options, and improved data presentation. Tenable.io could work on refining scanning speed, accuracy, and adaptability.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Sonatype Lifecycle has a straightforward deployment process and a responsive support team. Tenable.io's deployment is slightly more complex, but its customer service is efficient and knowledgeable, addressing user needs effectively.

Pricing and ROI: Sonatype Lifecycle is seen as cost-effective with a clear ROI due to its pricing simplicity. Tenable.io faces criticism for higher costs, but users feel the investment is justified by its extensive feature set and enhanced security posture.

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

Buyer's Guide

Sonatype Lifecycle 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

Sonatype Lifecycle

Ranking in Application Security Tools

13th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Software Composition Analysis (SCA) (6th), Software Supply Chain Security (6th), AI Software Development (15th)

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 Sonatype Lifecycle is 2.0%, down from 2.6% 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 (%)
Sonatype Lifecycle	2.0%
Tenable.io Web Application Scanning	1.4%
Other	96.6%

Application Security Tools

Featured Reviews

@RahulVerma

Presales Engineer at Rah Infotech Pvt Ltd

Compliance used to slow us down. Sonatype Lifecycle turned it into an automated, streamlined step that accelerates delivery instead of blocking it.

Sonatype Lifecycle already does a nice job, but as you use it, you can’t help but notice a few spots where it could feel even smoother. Imagine opening it and immediately seeing a clearer, friendlier dashboard that tells you exactly what deserves your attention without digging around. As you move through your workflow, it would be great if the tool connected more naturally with what you’re already using, so everything just flows. And when an issue pops up, instead of leaving you guessing, it could guide you through what to do next in a way that feels simple and supportive. Even having a bit more visibility into anything happening behind the scenes would make the experience feel more complete. It’s already strong, but with touches like these, it could feel even more helpful and intuitive in everyday use.

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

"With the plugin for our IDE that Sonatype provides, we can check whether a library has security, quality, or licensing issues very easily. Which is nice because Googling for this stuff can be a bit cumbersome. By checking it before code is even committed, we save ourselves from getting notifications."

"The key feature for Nexus Lifecycle is the proprietary data they have on vulnerabilities. The way that they combine all the different sources and also their own research into one concise article that clearly explains what the problem is. Most of the time, and even if you do notice that you have a problem, the public information available is pretty weak. So, if we want to assess if a problem applies to our product, it's really hard. We need to invest a lot of time digging into the problem. This work is basically done by Sonatype for us. The data that it delivers helps us with fixing or understanding the issue a lot quicker than without it."

"The price is high."

"Sonatype support is quite responsive. When we needed something, we could reach out and set up a meeting. They provide the best support possible."

"Automating the Jenkins plugins and the build title is a big plus."

"The solution provides a comprehensive overview of dependencies and their security status."

"It scans and gives you a low false-positive count... The reason we picked Lifecycle over the other products is, while the other products were flagging stuff too, they were flagging things that were incorrect. Nexus has low false-positive results, which give us a high confidence factor."

"When developers are consuming open-source libraries from the internet, it's able to automatically block the ones that are insecure. And it has the ability to make suggestions on the ones they should be using instead."

More Sonatype Lifecycle pros

"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."

"The most valuable features of Tenable.io Web Application Scanning are the integration into specific use cases and scanning. All of the features of the solution are useful."

"We use the tool for our websites. We have a vulnerable subdomain. The tool helps to scan it for vulnerabilities."

"Tenable.io Web Application Scanning is very easy to use."

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

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

"The solution's instant reports feature is the most effective for detecting threats."

More Tenable.io Web Application Scanning pros

Cons

"It would be helpful if it had a more detailed view of what has been quarantined, for people who don't have Lifecycle licenses. Other than that, it's pretty good."

"The price can be improved."

"It could be because I need to learn more about Sonatype Nexus Lifecycle, but as a leader, if I want to analyze the vulnerability situation and how it is and the forecast, I'd like to look at the reports and understand what the results mean. It's been challenging for me to understand the reports and dashboards on Sonatype Nexus Lifecycle, so I'll need to take a course or watch some YouTube tutorials about the product. If Sonatype Nexus Lifecycle has documentation that could help me properly analyze the vulnerability situation and what the graphs mean, then that would be helpful. I need help understanding what each graph is showing, and it seems my company is the worst, based on the chart. Still, I need clarification, so if there were some documentation, a more extensive knowledge base, or a question mark icon you could hover over that would explain what each data on the graph means, that would make Sonatype Nexus Lifecycle better."

"Another feature they could use is more languages. Sonatype has been mainly a Java shop because they look after Maven Central... But we've slowly been branching out to different languages. They don't cover all of them, and those that they do cover are not as in-depth as we would like them to be."

"The user interface needs to be improved. It is slow for us. We use Nexus IQ mostly via APIs. We don't use the interface that much, but when we use it, certain areas are just unresponsive or very slow to load. So, performance-wise, the UI is not fast enough for us, but we don't use it that much anyway."

"The reporting capability is good but I wish it was better. I sent the request to support and they raised it as an enhancement within the system. An example is filtering by version. If I have a framework that is used in all applications, but version 1 is used in 50 percent of them and version 2 in 25 percent, they will show as different libraries with different usage. But in reality, they're all using one framework."

"In the beginning, we sometimes struggle to access the customer environment. The customer must issue the required certificates because many customers use cell phone certificates, and Sonatype needs a valid CA certificate."

"If there is something which is not in Maven Central, sometimes it is difficult to get the right information because it's not found."

More Sonatype Lifecycle cons

"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."

"Sometimes it lags with different cloud environments."

"The technical support needs improvement. Currently, it takes time, which might be due to the free version, but providing some level of support could encourage future purchase decisions."

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

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

"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."

"We have encountered some problems with the technical support from Tenable; I would rate it a five out of ten. It is not efficacious, especially the first-level support."

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

More Tenable.io Web Application Scanning cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Pricing is decent. It's not horrible. It's middle-of-the-road, as far as our ranking goes. They're a little bit more but that's also because they provide more."

"It's expensive, but you get what you pay for. There were no problems with the base license and how they do it. It was transparent. You don't have to worry. You can scan to your heart's delight."

"Cost is a drawback. It's somewhat costly."

"There are additional costs in commercial offerings for add-ons such as Nexus Container or IDE Advanced Toolkit. They come with additional fees or licenses."

"Its pricing is competitive within the market. It's not very cheap, it's not very expensive."

"Given the number of users we have, it is one of the most expensive tools in our portfolio, which includes some real heavy-duty tools such as GitLab, Jira, etc. It is definitely a bit on the expensive side, and the ambiguity in how the licenses are calculated adds to the cost as well. If there is a better understanding of how the licenses are being calculated, there would be a better agreement between the two parties, and the cost might also be a little less. There is no extra cost from Sonatype. There is an operational cost on the BT side in terms of resources, etc."

"In comparison with other tools, Sonatype Nexus Lifecycle could be more expensive. Still, at the same time, my company prioritizes security, so the pricing for Sonatype Nexus Lifecycle hasn't been an issue. If IT security weren't at the top of the list for my company, somebody would have raised the question about cost and how Sonatype Nexus Lifecycle is in terms of ROI. So far, there's been no question about the price. The cost of Sonatype Nexus Lifecycle hasn't been a problem so far. My company pays for the license yearly, plus technical support."

"Lifecycle, to the best of my recollection, had the best pricing compared with other solutions."

More Sonatype Lifecycle pricing and cost advice

"The pricing is okay."

"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."

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

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

"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."

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

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

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

27%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Computer Software Company

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	13
Midsize Enterprise	8
Large Enterprise	29

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

Questions from the Community

How does Sonatype Nexus Lifecycle compare with SonarQube?

We like the data that Sonatype Nexus Lifecycle consistently delivers. This solution helps us in fixing and understanding the issues a lot quicker. The policy engine allows you to set up different t...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Sonatype Nexus Lifecycle?

From my experience, the licensing side is pretty straightforward to handle. Most of the cost and pricing considerations really come down to how the solution is deployed. Since we work with partners...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Sonatype Nexus Lifecycle?

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

SonarQube vs Sonatype Lifecycle

Compared 15% of the time

Black Duck SCA vs Sonatype Lifecycle

Compared 12% of the time

JFrog Xray vs Sonatype Lifecycle

Compared 9% of the time

Mend.io vs Sonatype Lifecycle

Compared 6% of the time

OpenText Static Application Security Testing vs Sonatype Lifecycle

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

SonarQube vs Tenable.io Web Application Scanning

Compared 6% of the time

More Tenable.io Web Application Scanning Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Sonatype Lifecycle

January 2026

Download Sonatype Lifecycle product report

Buyer's Guide

Application Security Tools

January 2026

Tenable.io Web Application Scanning report

Download Tenable.io Web Application Scanning product report

Also Known As

Sonatype Nexus Lifecycle, Nexus Lifecycle

No data available

Overview

Sonatype Lifecycle enhances enterprise security, helping reduce software risk efficiently. It offers automation and high-quality data to manage open source and AI risk across the SDLC, facilitating quicker issue resolution.

Sonatype Lifecycle reduces software vulnerabilities by offering advanced automation capabilities, ensuring reliable management of open source and AI risks. Through Golden Pull Requests, smart recommendations, and zero-effort fixes, it helps maintain software quality without disrupting development. Its adaptable policies enforce security, legal, and quality standards effectively, reducing potential rework and production issues. The platform provides deep insights into vulnerability, license, quality, and architecture, allowing teams to prioritize risks effectively while continuously monitoring changes. Comprehensive enterprise reporting boosts visibility into the effectiveness of security programs.

What features does Sonatype Lifecycle offer?

DevOps Tools Integration: Seamlessly integrates with DevOps tools and Jenkins for streamlined workflows.
Proactive Detection: Identifies vulnerabilities and policy violations proactively.
Secure Scanning: Blocks insecure open-source components to ensure safe code deployment.
Continuous Monitoring: Live data integration within CICD pipelines aids in continuous awareness.
Alternative Suggestions: Provides developers with viable substitutes for flagged components.

What benefits should users evaluate in reviews?

Risk Reduction: Aids in minimizing software vulnerabilities and compliance issues.
Development Efficiency: Maintains productivity by seamlessly integrating with existing processes.
Quality Insights: Offers reliable data with low false positives, enhancing decision-making.
Time Efficiency: Enables developers to address issues promptly without disrupting workflows.

Sonatype Lifecycle is widely used to enhance security across industries by automating DevSecOps and integrating into build pipelines. Companies employ it for proactive monitoring of third-party libraries, ensuring compliance with licensing standards, and managing firewalls to prevent insecure components. It supports organizations in maintaining robust software supply chain security.

Sonatype

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

Genome.One, Blackboard, Crediterform, Crosskey, Intuit, Progress Software, Qualys, Liberty Mutual Insurance

IMDEX

Buyer's Guide

Sonatype Lifecycle vs. Tenable.io Web Application Scanning

February 2026

Free Report: Sonatype Lifecycle vs. Tenable.io Web Application Scanning

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

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