SonarQube is excellent at what it does: code quality and basic security rules. dpndncY is purpose-built for a different problem — vulnerable dependencies, supply chain risk, and exploitability intelligence.
CVE intelligence, EPSS scoring, CISA KEV, Attack Paths, container scanning, SBOM export, and policy gates — all built around the question: "Is this dependency safe to ship?"
SonarQube detects code smells, bugs, and security hotspots in your own code. It has some vulnerability detection but is not designed for dependency-level CVE tracking or supply chain risk.
| Capability | dpndncY | SonarQube |
|---|---|---|
| Primary purpose | ✓ Supply chain & dependency security | ~ Code quality + basic security |
| SCA — dependency CVE scanning | ✓ Full — OSV, NVD, GHSA, KEV | ✗ Not available natively |
| SAST (code security rules) | ✓ Native, 300+ rules, 9 languages | ✓ Extensive rule library |
| EPSS exploitability scoring | ✓ Per vulnerability | ✗ Not available |
| CISA KEV integration | ✓ Automatic prioritization | ✗ Not available |
| Attack Path analysis | ✓ Full graph and scoring | ✗ Not available |
| Container image scanning | ✓ Built in | ✗ Not available |
| SBOM export (CycloneDX) | ✓ CycloneDX, SARIF, PDF | ✗ Not available |
| Upgrade risk delta | ✓ Before/after risk comparison | ✗ Not available |
| CI/CD policy gates (PASS/FAIL) | ✓ Configurable thresholds | ✓ Quality gates |
| GitHub/GitLab remediation PRs | ✓ Built in | ✗ Not available |
| License compliance | ✓ Per package | ✗ Not available |
| Self-hosted | ✓ Always | ✓ Community edition free |
| Code quality metrics | ✗ Not in scope | ✓ Core strength |
SonarQube analyzes your source code for bugs and security issues. It doesn't track CVEs in your npm packages, Maven dependencies, or PyPI requirements. That's a completely different problem — and it's what dpndncY is built for.
dpndncY pulls from OSV, NVD, GHSA, and CISA KEV to give you real vulnerability data with EPSS exploit probability scores. SonarQube's security rules detect coding patterns — not known CVEs in third-party libraries.
Many teams use both. SonarQube handles code quality and custom rule enforcement on your own code. dpndncY handles supply chain risk, dependency CVEs, and container scanning. They're complementary, not competing.
dpndncY scans container images (tarball or registry), zip uploads, and individual manifests. SonarQube operates on source code — it has no concept of a container image or transitive dependency graph.
They solve different problems. dpndncY covers your dependency risk surface — SonarQube covers your code quality surface.
