Number 1: Semgrep
Best for: codifying your own secure coding conventions across a polyglot codebase
Open source and commercial
Established
Ranked list · SAST
Top 10 SAST Tools
9 tools, ranked Last reviewed
A practitioner's guide to ten static analysis tools, chosen for distinct scenarios rather than ranked, with the trade-offs each one brings.
The order follows the roundup The 10 Best SAST Tools, which explains each pick and where it falls short.
Number 2: GitHub CodeQL
by GitHub
Best for: hunting every variant of a bug you have already found once
Open source and commercial
Established
Best for: one enforcement gate across many repositories where quality and security share an owner
Commercial, free tier
Established
Number 4: GitLab SAST
by GitLab
Best for: getting baseline scanning running in a GitLab shop without new infrastructure
Open source
Established
Number 5: OpenText Fortify
by OpenText
Best for: regulated environments with legacy languages and a genuine audit evidence requirement
Commercial
Established
Best for: enforcing a central policy on compiled artifacts, including software you did not build
Commercial
Established
Number 7: Coverity
by Black Duck
Best for: deep defect analysis of large native C and C++ codebases
Commercial
Established
Best for: Rails applications where framework context decides whether a finding is real
Commercial, free tier
Established
Number 9: OpenGrep
Best for: pattern based scanning where the engine and rule licensing must stay permissive
Open source
Emerging
methodology
How this list was made
How entries are chosen. Every entry is a tool with a published profile in the catalog, in Static Application Security Testing. Each note above says why it made this list, for the job in the title, separately from the tool's full profile.
Ranking is editorial. The order is a judgement by the editors about fit for this use case, not a score, a benchmark or a popularity count. A different job can produce a different order.
Advertising has no influence. Slots marked Sponsored are sold separately from the editorial. No vendor can pay to be included, to move up, or to be removed.