Application Security Testing (AST) tools are essential to ensure your applications are secure from weaknesses and vulnerabilities. When evaluating AST tools, teams often consider Snyk and Veracode. This page compares Snyk and Veracode exploring their respective core capabilities, key differences, strengths, and weaknesses to help you make an informed decision.
For enterprises requiring a complete solution that combines superior scanning capabilities (including SAST, SCA, Secrets, and more) with integrations and platform extensibility, read on to the end to learn why Cydode’s Complete Application Security Posture Management (ASPM) platform may be the best Veracode and Snyk alternative for your needs.
What is Snyk?
Snyk is a developer-first security platform designed to integrate security into developer workflows. Initially focused on Software Composition Analysis (SCA) for identifying vulnerabilities in open-source dependencies, Snyk has expanded to include scanning for code, container images, infrastructure as code (IaC), and more.
Snyk’s emphasis on developer workflows and “shift-left” security has led to wide adoption among agile DevOps teams.
What is Veracode?
Veracode is an AST suite designed for enterprises. Its foundations are in Binary Static Analysis (SAST) and the offering has expanded to provide dynamic analysis (DAST) and SCA to identify vulnerabilities throughout the software development lifecycle.
Veracode’s focus on security policies and compliance makes it a popular choice for security teams and organizations with stringent security requirements.
Key Features of Snyk
Snyk’s strength lies in its developer-first approach. It integrates well with IDEs, CI/CD pipelines, and repositories to provide fast feedback to developers. This makes it well-suited for organizations looking for an agile security solution with a good developer experience.
- Dependency scanning: Identifies vulnerabilities in open-source libraries and dependencies, helping teams proactively address risks.
- Developer-friendly integrations: Embeds security seamlessly into developer workflows, ensuring minimal disruption and maximum adoption.
- Fast feedback: Delivers actionable insights in real-time, enabling developers to fix vulnerabilities faster and more efficiently.
- Container and IaC security: Analyzes container images and infrastructure configurations to secure the entire development environment.
Key Features of Veracode
Veracode offers a robust suite of AST tools tailored for enterprises that prioritize compliance, governance, and security at scale. Its centralized platform provides detailed reporting and analytics enabling organizations to track and enforce security policies effectively.
- Broad testing suite (SAST, DAST, SCA): Covers all major testing methodologies to ensure a holistic approach to application security.
- Enterprise-grade compliance tools: Enables organizations to meet industry regulations and internal security policies with ease.
- Detailed vulnerability insights: Offers deep analytics and prioritization guidance to streamline the remediation process.
- Scalability for large enterprises: Supports complex, multi-application environments, making it suitable for large-scale organizations.
Snyk vs Veracode: 3 Key Differences
- Focus:
- Snyk: Developer-first focus with an emphasis on seamless workflow integration.
- Veracode: Security-first focus with an emphasis on scanning and policy for enterprises with complex compliance and governance requirements.
- Workflow:
- Snyk: Excels in developer-centric integrations like IDEs and CI/CD tools for shift-left security
- Veracode: Provides integrations suited to security teams automating scanning and security guardrails in enterprise workflows
- Scope and Scalability:
- Snyk: Caters to agile DevOps teams looking to quickly implement security checks into the development process.
- Veracode: Designed for enterprise-scale operations with pricing and complexity to match.
Snyk Pros and Cons
Pros:
- Integration with Developer Tools: Snyk embeds security checks directly into developers’ existing workflows, such as IDEs and CI/CD pipelines, enabling seamless adoption and minimal disruption.
- Vulnerability Detection: Provides immediate feedback and actionable solutions, empowering developers to identify and fix vulnerabilities early in the software development lifecycle.
- Ease of Use: Snyk’s intuitive interface and straightforward setup allow teams to onboard quickly, focusing on core development tasks without steep learning curves.
- Strong Support for Open-Source Security: Specializes in dependency analysis, ensuring teams can proactively manage risks in their software supply chain.
Cons:
- Limited Enterprise Governance Features: Snyk’s focus on developers makes it less suited for organizations with stringent compliance and governance requirements.
- Less Comprehensive Testing: While excellent for open-source and container security, Snyk lacks advanced capabilities like IAST, which limits its coverage for runtime vulnerabilities.
- Cost Scaling: Pricing can become expensive for larger teams or enterprises with extensive needs.
- Limited extensibility and visibility: Snyk’s lack of certain scan types and limited integrations with third-party scanners require additional tools to unify visibility and cover gaps in vulnerability detection.
Veracode Pros and Cons
Pros:
- Extensive suite of AST tools: Veracode provides SAST, DAST, and SCA, ensuring broad vulnerability coverage across the software lifecycle.
- Governance and compliance focus: The platform includes robust compliance features, making it well-suited for enterprises with strict regulatory requirements.
- Scalable to handle complex applications: Veracode’s architecture supports large-scale environments, making it suitable for enterprise use.
- Detailed analytics and policy enforcement: Offers actionable insights and enforces policies to ensure consistent security across teams and applications.
Cons:
- Steeper learning curve and setup requirements: Veracode requires significant time and resources to implement effectively and it often takes a long time before customers complete their first scan (let alone their first fix).
- Slower feedback cycles: Veracode’s binary static analysis requires a cumbersome compilation step and can delay vulnerability detection and impact agile workflows. Scans tend to be slower and more incremental versus real-time.
- Higher costs may not suit smaller teams or budgets: Veracode’s pricing aligns with its enterprise-grade features, potentially limiting accessibility for smaller organizations. Veracode also charges a premium for AI features like its AI code remediation offering.
- Limited extensibility and visibility: Gaps in Veracode’s portfolio and limited integrations with third-party scanners require additional tools to achieve full vulnerability detection.
Cycode: The Best Veracode and Snyk Alternative
Choosing the right AST tool depends on your organization’s specific needs. Snyk is attractive for its developer experience; however, Snyk’s developer-first approach comes at the expense of security features enterprise teams require. Veracode is better suited for compliance, governance, and enterprise-scale use cases; however, the legacy technology and dated developer experience introduce friction into the software development lifecycle.
Furthermore, Snyk and Veracode both have relatively closed ecosystems and limited integrations with third-party scanners. This siloed approach prevents them from delivering a complete and unified application security solution.
Cycode’s Complete Application Security Posture Management (ASPM) solution best serves the needs of developers and enterprise security teams by combining superior AST scanners and developer experience with an enterprise-grade and extensible platform, risk-based prioritization, and workflow automation. Highlights include:
- Comprehensive AST coverage: Stop code risk before it starts and deliver safe code faster. Cycode’s proprietary scanners – including SAST, SCA, Secrets, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), Container, Source Code Leakage, and CI/CD posture – empower you to secure your code, software supply chain, and cloud-native infrastructure.
- Complete ASPM platform: Save developers time and fix what matters faster. Beyond its suite of proprietary scanners, Cycode unifies data from over 100 third-party security tools and leverages its Risk Intelligence Graph (RIG) to distill millions of findings into the few most critical risks. Cycode maps those risks to root causes and owners and automates workflows to simplify AppSec complexity, power risk-based prioritization, and accelerate remediation.
- Lower total cost of ownership: Identify tool overlaps, consolidate, and build the foundation for your future-fit security program. Cycode delivers a complete solution that empowers enterprise customers to adapt and optimize their security ecosystems for today and tomorrow.
Learn more about Cycode’s AST capabilities or get a demo to explore the full solution.
