Veracode is a popular application security testing platform, and it has become one of the leaders in many of the most recent Gartner Magic Quadrants. With Dynamic Analysis (DAST), Software Composition Analysis (SCA), and Static Analysis (SAST) all wrapped into a single platform, Veracode has been considered a one-stop shop for many security teams. However, despite the lead in the Magic Quadrant and the breadth of products offered, customer feedback on the Veracode product is often lacking. It is often described as selling a big vision that the product fails to deliver on.
There are certain use cases where Veracode performs well, but software teams that are delivering modern applications and that desire to shift security left typically search for alternatives that are built for developers and DevOps automation. Modern teams look for solutions that introduce novel and cutting-edge ways to enhance code quality and automate code reviews. Tools like Snyk and StackHawk are popular because they provide features to automate certain aspects of code reviews (in regard to security) and improve code standards. These types of platforms help with reducing technical debt through continuous monitoring and tailored analysis. But before we get into the particulars of the Veracode alternatives, let's begin by looking a bit deeper at Veracode itself.
Understanding Veracode and Its Limitations
Veracode is a well-established application security platform that provides a range of tools and services to help organizations identify and manage security vulnerabilities in their software development process. However, despite its strengths, Veracode has its limitations, which can impact its effectiveness in certain situations.
What Veracode Does
Veracode offers a comprehensive suite of application security testing tools, including static analysis, dynamic analysis, and software composition analysis. These tools help development teams identify security vulnerabilities in their source code, network security, and other areas of their software development process. Veracode’s platform integrates with existing workflows, allowing teams to scan compiled code and identify potential security issues early in the development process. This integration ensures that security is embedded throughout the development lifecycle, helping teams to maintain a robust security posture. Unfortunately, even though Veracode can look really good on paper, many run up against its limitations quickly.
Veracode Limitations
Despite its strengths, Veracode has several limitations that can impact its effectiveness. One of the main limitations is its inability to provide a seamless and intuitive user interface, which can make it difficult for development teams to use the platform effectively. Additionally, Veracode’s vulnerability management capabilities can be limited, making it challenging for teams to prioritize and manage security issues effectively. Furthermore, Veracode’s software supply chain security capabilities, features that manage security risks in their third-party components, can be limited. This can make it difficult for teams to identify issues and rectify them before they can have a larger impact. These limitations can hinder the overall efficiency and effectiveness of security teams and software developers working with them, especially in fast-paced development environments.
Integration and Scalability
One of the key features of any application security platform is its ability to integrate with existing workflows and scale to meet the needs of large development teams. In this section, we will explore Veracode’s integration and scalability capabilities.
Seamless Integration
Veracode’s platform integrates with a range of development tools and platforms, including IDEs, CI/CD tools, and version control systems. This allows development teams to scan their code and identify potential security issues early in the development process. However, Veracode’s integration capabilities can be limited, making it difficult for teams to integrate the platform with their existing workflows. Additionally, Veracode’s scalability can be limited, making it challenging for large development teams to use the platform effectively.
In contrast, some Veracode alternatives offer more seamless integration and scalability capabilities. For example, GitHub's Advanced Security platform provides a range of integration options, including APIs and webhooks, making it easy for development teams to integrate the platform with their existing workflows. Additionally, GitHub's platform is highly scalable, making it suitable for large development teams. This is a major reason why StackHawk has become such a close partner of GitHub! This flexibility and scalability ensure that security measures can grow alongside the development process, providing continuous protection without hindering productivity.
Overall, while Veracode is a well-established application security platform, it has several limitations that can impact its effectiveness. In contrast, some Veracode alternatives offer more comprehensive and scalable solutions that can meet the needs of large development teams. Now, it's time to start exploring some of the alternatives to Veracode!
Top Veracode Alternatives
StackHawk
As the only product built for automation in CI/CD, StackHawk is the most modern DAST platform on the market. With StackHawk, dynamic application security tests are automated in the DevOps pipeline, alerting engineering teams if they have introduced a new vulnerability before the release to production. This approach drastically reduces the time to discover new vulnerabilities, and with a developer-centric platform, engineers are equipped to fix vulnerabilities themselves while still in the context of the code they are working on.
Additionally, StackHawk is the leader in DAST for modern technologies. Modern application stacks introduce different requirements for dynamic testing. Today's applications are backed by APIs, with more and more of the risk found at the API layer. StackHawk offers best-in-class API security testing for REST, GraphQL, SOAP, and gRPC APIs. With StackHawk, teams can test the underlying APIs and microservices independently, allowing for more performant tests and identification of vulnerabilities earlier in the development lifecycle.
Burp Suite
Security teams that are not ready to shift DAST left may prefer Burp Suite by Portswigger. Burp Suite has long been a favorite among penetration testers, and with the release of Burp Suite Enterprise, the product is growing in popularity among internal security teams as well.
For security teams that prefer to review all vulnerabilities themselves as a first step in the process, Burp Suite is the product of choice. Burp Suite Enterprise runs as a point-and-click scan, which makes it easy for security teams to test the production application or a publicly available staging site.
Note that while the product messages DevSecOps, the scan is simply run as a trigger from a CI/CD run rather than running a scan as part of the CI/CD pipeline. This is a step left in security testing, but it still requires vulnerabilities to be public-facing before they can be discovered.
→ For more DAST tools and a guide on what to look for, be sure to check out our DAST Overview and Tooling Guide
Alternatives to Veracode SCA
Snyk
In recent years, Snyk has quickly become the software composition analysis tool of choice. Snyk actively maintains the open-source Snyk Intel Vulnerability Database, which is the leading vulnerability database in the market. The Snyk Open Source product, its SCA offering, leverages the vulnerability database to alert developers when a dependency in their codebase contains a vulnerability.
Snyk's developer-centric approach has led to its rapid growth and adoption. Developers are alerted in their IDE if they've included a dependency that contains a vulnerability, and teams can instrument automation in CI/CD to ensure that vulnerabilities don't hit production. Additionally, with automated pull requests and patching, Snyk makes it easy for developers to deploy secure applications.
Dependabot
Dependabot is the SCA tool built into GitHub. It compares the dependency graph of the codebase against a database of known vulnerabilities, alerting users if a dependency they are using is vulnerable. Additionally, Dependabot reviews any changes to dependencies in the pull request, allowing teams to catch vulnerabilities before they are added to the code base. Dependabot is enabled on all public repos by default and can be enabled on private repos by a user with admin privileges.
Alternatives to Veracode SAST
Snyk
Snyk Code, the latest product release from Snyk, builds upon the company’s developer-centric application security foundation to deliver static application security testing for developers. True to its DNA, Snyk Code is integrated into the IDE, identifying security vulnerabilities when they are first introduced. With this, it is easy for developers to fix the bug while they are working on that part of the codebase instead of having to revisit it weeks or months later. Additionally, Snyk Code is integrated into the DevOps pipeline, allowing security teams to write rules that prevent vulnerabilities from being pushed to production.
Semgrep
Semgrep is a new open source static analysis tool that is maintained and commercially supported by r2c. Semgrep makes it easy to leverage existing security rules for static analysis, and also supports writing custom rules to identify vulnerable code. Semgrep makes it easy to automate testing, with the ability to run tests in the IDE, CLI, or in CI/CD. Semgrep supports 17 languages, including Go, Java, Javascript, Python, and more.
GitHub CodeQL
CodeQL is a semantic analysis tool built around the QL query language. It draws on an open-source, community-maintained set of queries to help developers identify vulnerabilities in their code. CodeQL supports testing for C/C++, C#, Go, Java, JavaScript/TypeScript, and Python. Some people are more familiar with CodeQL under the Semmle brand, the original creators of the product that was then acquired by GitHub.
Best in Class Alternative to Veracode
Finding the right suite of application security testing tools is dependent on the specific use cases of a given team. However, here at StackHawk, one of our favorite combinations is StackHawk for DAST (we are obviously biased, but we also believe you'll agree if you give us a try) and Snyk for SAST and SCA. For a glimpse of how these tools can work together, check out the following video:
