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SonarQube Advanced Security
Your code passed the gate. Its dependencies were never checked — Advanced Security adds SCA and dependency-aware taint analysis to SonarQube — CVEs ranked by exploitability, malware and licences checked, and SBOMs exported, all behind the quality gate your developers already use.
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How it’s rated
Full scoreboard ↓Quick answer
The Sonar platform family
This page covers SonarQube Advanced Security — the add-on subscription for SCA and advanced SAST. The rest:
Quick facts
30-second orientation- Product
- SCA + advanced SAST add-on for SonarQube
- SCA
- Direct and transitive CVEs, CVSS/EPSS/KEV
- Ecosystems
- 10 — JVM, JS/TS, .NET, Python, Go, PHP, Rust, Ruby
- Supply chain
- Malicious packages, licence policy, SBOM
- Advanced SAST
- Taint analysis into dependencies (Java, C#)
- Runs on
- Server Enterprise 2025.3+ · Cloud Enterprise
- Cloud Team
- Confirm with Sonar whether your plan includes it
- Price
- Additional subscription — quote only
- India
- Cloud stores data in EU or US; self-host Server
- In India via
- TechBag — INR/GST, scoping and support
Understand software composition analysis before you buy it
Most product pages skip this. We start here — so you buy a capability, not a buzzword.
What is software composition analysis?
An inventory of the open source inside your code — every direct and transitive dependency — checked for known vulnerabilities, malware and licence risk.
Separate SAST and SCA tools vs one SonarQube gate — the honest table
What consolidation actually replaces, dimension by dimension.
| Dimension | Separate SAST and SCA tools | SonarQube Advanced Security |
|---|---|---|
| Where findings live | SAST in one tool, SCA in another | One SonarQube quality gate for both |
| Transitive dependencies | Invisible until an advisory lands | Resolved and matched to known CVEs |
| Prioritisation | CVSS score alone | CVSS plus EPSS and KEV exploitability |
| Licences | Checked by hand before an audit | Custom policy, validated on every analysis |
| The price | A second vendor’s per-developer licence | An add-on to SonarQube Enterprise, quote only |
| What it is NOT | — | Not available on Server Developer edition |
The cheapest test is your own backlog: run it on one project you already scan for dependencies and compare what reaches the top of the list.
The five pieces of the platform
Vendors love diagrams; buyers need to know what they’re actually operating. Here’s the whole platform, demystified.
SCA
Resolves direct and transitive dependencies from your manifests and matches them to known CVEs, ranked by CVSS severity and EPSS exploitability, with safe versions named.
Policy
Flags malicious packages and checks each dependency’s licence against a policy you define, so either can fail the quality gate before merge rather than surface at audit.
Taint
Follows user-controlled data from your code into third-party library calls and back, finding injection paths ordinary SAST stops at — Java and C#, per Sonar.
SBOM
Exports every component in a project as a CycloneDX or SPDX SBOM — the inventory a customer, regulator or incident team asks for, from the same analysis.
Four layers, one analysis — what you pull in, what you allow, how data flows through it, and what you ship.
Nine capabilities. Detect, govern, fix.
Advanced Security puts your dependencies behind the same quality gate as your code — CVEs ranked by exploitability, malware and licences checked, and data traced into the libraries you call.
Direct and transitive CVEs
Finds known vulnerabilities in every dependency your build resolves, not only the ones you declared — transitive packages included.
Ranked by CVSS, EPSS and KEV
Severity (CVSS) meets exploitability (EPSS and the KEV catalogue), so the first fix is the one attackers are likeliest to use.
Malicious packages caught
Detects malicious packages among your dependencies, and a quality gate can stop the merge that would bring one into the codebase.
Licence policy you define
Automated licence detection and validation against a custom policy, with compatibility checks for corporate use of each package.
One gate for code and packages
Dependency risks fail the same quality gate as bugs and SAST findings, so a pull request is blocked in one place, not three tools.
CycloneDX or SPDX export
Export a software bill of materials per project in either standard format — the inventory customers and auditors now ask for.
Taint analysis into libraries
Advanced SAST tracks data from your code through third-party library calls and back — Java and C# today, per Sonar’s product page.
Know which version to move to
For each vulnerable dependency Sonar shows which versions are safe to use, so an upgrade becomes a decision rather than a search.
Maintainer insight from Tidelift
Sonar folds in Tidelift’s maintainer insight — false-positive checks, exploitability context and workarounds beyond the CVE feed.
Watch SonarQube Advanced Security in action
The introduction, the Cloud Enterprise launch, and code and dependency security behind one gate.
Introducing SonarQube Advanced Security — developer-first SCA and SAST
SCA and SAST in one developer flow.
SonarQube Advanced Security — now available for SonarQube Cloud Enterprise
The add-on arrives on Cloud Enterprise.
SonarQube Advanced Security — developer-first code quality and security
Code and dependencies behind one gate.
Want a live, India-context walkthrough for your environment?
Book a guided demo →Most teams scan code and dependencies in different tools. Advanced Security puts both behind one gate.
Here’s what genuinely sets it apart — and exactly where it stops.
Code and dependencies behind one gate
Most teams run SAST in one tool and SCA in another, with two dashboards and two sets of exceptions. Advanced Security puts dependency CVEs, malicious packages and licence breaches into the same SonarQube quality gate that already checks your code, so one failing gate blocks the merge.
Taint that crosses the library boundary
Ordinary taint analysis stops where your code calls a library. Sonar’s advanced SAST follows user-controlled data through third-party code and back, so an injection path that exists only because of how a dependency behaves gets reported. Sonar lists Java and C# for this today.
Fewer CVEs nobody can act on
Findings are ranked by CVSS severity and by EPSS and KEV exploitability, the safe version is named, and Tidelift’s maintainer insight adds false-positive checks and workarounds. The aim is a short list your developers will actually fix, not a spreadsheet of every advisory.
Where it stops
It is an Enterprise add-on with no public price: Server Enterprise or Data Center 2025.3+, or Cloud Enterprise — on Cloud Team, confirm with Sonar. SCA covers 10 ecosystems, so check yours, and SonarQube Cloud stores data in the EU or US only; India residency means self-hosting.
The numbers behind the platform
What your Advanced Security rollout looks like
Confirm the edition and plan
Check you are on Server Enterprise 2025.3+ or Cloud Enterprise; on Cloud Team, ask Sonar in writing whether it is included.
Map ecosystems and licences
List the package managers each team uses against the 10 supported ecosystems, and draft the licence policy with legal.
Pilot on three live projects
Turn on SCA for three active projects and compare the ranked findings with your current SCA tool or advisory backlog.
Put dependencies in the gate
Add dependency and licence conditions to the quality gate for new code first, so existing debt does not block every merge.
Export SBOMs, retire overlap
Export CycloneDX or SPDX SBOMs for the products customers ask about, then decide whether a separate SCA tool still earns its fee.
The review scoreboard
Modelled on Gartner Peer Insights structure. *Counts and breakdowns are illustrative pending verified review collection.
Quick poll — what’s driving your evaluation?
Talk to an advisor“Dependency findings now fail the same quality gate as our code issues. Developers stopped asking which dashboard to check.”
“EPSS ranking cut our dependency backlog to something one sprint can hold. Severity alone had us chasing the wrong CVEs.”
“The licence policy flagged a copyleft library in a customer-facing module before release. Legal used to find those at audit.”
“No public price and Enterprise edition required — budget the edition and the add-on together, not one after the other.”
“We exported CycloneDX SBOMs for a bank’s vendor questionnaire straight from SonarQube. No second tool, no spreadsheet.”
“Our Cloud organisation sits in the EU region. For Indian client code we run SonarQube Server on our own infrastructure.”
Where everyone sits — the grids
Analyst firms bury this view behind paywalls, and G2 retired its Grid. So here’s TechBag’s synthesis of the software composition analysis market — tap any vendor to see why it sits where it does.
TechBag Software Composition Analysis Grid
Execution strength vs product vision — the classic market map, minus the paywall.
SCA and taint in the SonarQube gate; quote only.
Ecosystem & Deployment Breadth × Analysis Depth
The grid nobody publishes — how many ecosystems and deployment models it covers vs how deep its dependency analysis goes.
10 ecosystems; EPSS/KEV ranking and library taint.
Positions are TechBag’s illustrative synthesis of public review-platform data and vendor documentation — not a reproduction of any analyst graphic. Verify before relying on it.
Advanced Security vs the SCA field
Against Snyk Open Source, Mend.io, Black Duck SCA, Sonatype Lifecycle and JFrog Xray — on coverage, deployment, price, analysis depth and India.
| Dimension | SonarQube Advanced Security | Snyk Open Source | Mend.io | Black Duck SCA | Sonatype Lifecycle | JFrog Xray |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | SCA + SAST in SonarQube | Developer-first SCA | AppSec platform SCA | Composition analysis | Policy-led SCA | SCA inside the registry |
| Deployment | Self-host or SaaS | SaaS; Broker for on-prem | SaaS-led | SaaS or self-hosted | Cloud, on-prem, air-gap | SaaS, self-host, air-gap |
| Ecosystem coverage | 10 ecosystems | Major ecosystems | Broad + reachability | Source and binaries | 20+ ecosystems | 25+ package types |
| Pricing model | Add-on subscription | Credits on Enterprise | Per contributing dev | Quote only | Credits via Guide | Comes with a tier |
| Published entry price | Not published | Free; Team from $25/mo | Up to $1,000/dev/yr | Not published | Guide Pro $1,200/yr | $950/mo · $27k/yr |
| Included vs add-on | Needs Enterprise first | Priced per product | Broad bundle | Not published | Firewall sold apart | Applicability is extra |
| Scale limits | Sized by lines of code | Plan caps | No scan caps | Not published | Credit-bounded | Consumption-metered |
| Analysis depth | SCA + library taint | Vulns, licences, malware | Reachability + malware | Snippets and binaries | Policy + quality data | CVE, licence, malware |
| Integrations | Four DevOps platforms | Git, IDE, CLI, CI | Repos and CI | IDE plus CI | Nexus-native | IDE, CLI, CI |
| Governance & SSO | Enterprise controls | Policies in PR and CI | Repo-level policy | Project policies | Policy engine heritage | Watches + policies |
| India storage region | Self-host in India | No India region | India region (2026) | Self-host in India | Self-host in India | Mumbai · Pune |
| Support | Included from 30M LOC | Confirm the SLA | Confirm the SLA | Confirm the SLA | Confirm the SLA | 24/7 SLA |
| Lock-in & exit | Tied to SonarQube | Registry-neutral | Tool-neutral | Tool-neutral | Best with Nexus | Tied to Artifactory |
| Best fit | SonarQube Enterprise | Developer-led teams | One AppSec bundle | Audit-heavy estates | Nexus + policy shops | Artifactory estates |
Which approach fits you?
Honest fit signals — because the fastest way to lose your trust is to pretend one product wins every scenario.
Choose Advanced Security if…
- ✓You already run SonarQube Enterprise and want dependency risk in the same quality gate as your code
- ✓Your stack sits inside its 10 SCA ecosystems, with Java or C# where taint into libraries matters most
- ✓Code must stay in India — self-hosted SonarQube Server keeps analysis on your own infrastructure
Compare alternatives if…
- ✓You need binary or snippet scanning — weigh Black Duck SCA
- ✓Your gate belongs at the registry — weigh JFrog Xray or Sonatype Lifecycle with Nexus
- ✓You want a published per-developer price or an India SaaS region — weigh Snyk or Mend
Do not expect…
- ✓A public price — it is an additional subscription, quote only
- ✓It on SonarQube Server Developer edition — Enterprise and up only
- ✓Hosted analysis stored in India — SonarQube Cloud stores data in the EU or US only
SonarQube Advanced Security is one of 35 developer tools products TechBag carries. The Developer Tools guide narrows them to a shortlist and shows the reasoning. →
What does unranked dependency risk cost you?
Drag the sliders (developers; developer-hour cost). Estimates model developer time lost to dependency risk handled outside the pull request — triaging unranked CVE lists, answering licence questions late and patching after release — at an assumed 1.5 hours per developer a year, with 70% of it recovered when ranked findings arrive in the quality gate. Both figures are assumptions. Illustrative.
Loaded cost = salary + overheads per productive hour. Illustrative only — your TechBag quote models your actual environment and modules.
Three ways to consume it
Not published: SonarQube Advanced Security is an additional subscription on SonarQube Server Enterprise and Data Center (2025.3+) and is available on SonarQube Cloud Enterprise; on Cloud Team, confirm with Sonar whether your plan includes it. Server is priced per instance, per year, by lines of code. TechBag scopes your edition and codebase first, then quotes in INR with GST.
Server Enterprise + add-on
Best when code must stay in India
- Self-hosted, per instance by LOC
- Additional subscription, 2025.3+
- Contact sales — no list price
+ Platform add-ons
Best for a broader rollout
- Scoped to your estate
- Add-on modules as needed
- Phased, right-sized deployment
Cloud Enterprise
Best for SaaS with SSO and audit
- Custom pricing, unlimited LOC
- SAML/OIDC SSO, SCIM, audit logs
- Data stored in the EU or US
Buy it for less — TechBag pricing beats list
Whatever the list prices above, TechBag negotiates a significantly better deal — with GST-compliant INR invoicing and local support. Ask us for your discounted quote.
Get an India-ready quote
Tell us your requirements and current tools — we’ll model it against what you spend today.
The 8 questions to ask every vendor
Take this into your next vendor call — including ours.
Are you on SonarQube Server Enterprise or Data Center 2025.3+, or Cloud Enterprise? Developer edition cannot run the add-on.
On SonarQube Cloud Team? Sonar’s pages differ on whether the add-on is included — get the answer from Sonar in writing.
Do all your package managers fall inside the 10 supported ecosystems, and which projects fall outside them?
Advanced SAST lists Java and C#. How much of your risk sits in other languages, where it will not apply?
Has legal defined which licences are allowed, restricted or banned, so the policy you configure means something?
SonarQube Cloud stores data in the EU or US. Does DPDP or a client contract require self-hosted Server in India?
Which existing SCA or licence tool would this replace, and what does that tool cost you at the next renewal?
With no public price, what is the add-on quoted at on top of your edition, and how does it scale as code grows?
Questions buyers ask
Ready to evaluate SonarQube Advanced Security?
Check your edition and ecosystems against what the add-on needs first, or let a TechBag advisor scope a pilot on three live projects.
Stats, ratings, review counts and pricing are illustrative and sourced from public materials; verify before purchase.