Comprehensive Review of 32 SAST Tools - The Ones Worth Using

The author tested 32 static application security testing (SAST) tools and shares their findings, including detection rates, false positive rates, scan speeds, and developer experience. They provide recommendations for the best tools in various categories.

Details

The author has been reviewing static application security testing (SAST) tools for the past three years and has experienced the challenges of enterprise scanner deployment, custom rule writing, and dealing with vendor demos that don't reflect real-world performance. This time, they decided to thoroughly test 32 SAST tools, including legacy enterprise platforms and brand-new AI-native engines, against four real-world codebases with planted vulnerabilities. They measured the tools' detection rates, false positive rates, scan speeds, and developer experience, as well as pricing transparency. The results were sobering, with some expensive enterprise tools performing worse than open-source alternatives, and some free tools drowning developers in noise. However, the author also identified a handful of newer tools that impressed with innovative approaches, such as AI-powered triage to reduce false positives by 40%, automated remediation that opens fix pull requests, and natural language policy engines for defining security requirements. The author provides a quick verdict on the top picks in various categories, including best overall, enterprise, open-source, speed, C/C++, budget, AI-native, and remediation.