Popular SAST Tools and Their Capabilities

The SAST tool landscape includes both open-source and commercial solutions, each with unique strengths and focus areas. SonarQube has become one of the most widely adopted SAST platforms, supporting over 25 programming languages and integrating seamlessly with popular development tools. Its community edition provides comprehensive security analysis for most common languages, while commercial editions add advanced features like security hotspot analysis and enterprise integrations.

Checkmarx stands out as a comprehensive commercial SAST solution designed for enterprise environments. It excels at analyzing complex applications with millions of lines of code, providing detailed vulnerability information and remediation guidance. Checkmarx's incremental scanning capabilities enable rapid feedback on code changes, while its extensive API support facilitates integration with diverse development toolchains.

Semgrep represents a new generation of SAST tools focused on developer experience and customization. Its pattern-based approach allows teams to write custom rules in minutes rather than hours, addressing organization-specific security requirements. Semgrep's lightweight architecture enables it to run quickly in CI/CD pipelines, while its cloud platform aggregates findings across projects and teams.