Semgrep is a popular choice for teams that want fast, transparent static analysis, and its free Community Edition makes it easy to add to CI. As applications grow, though, some teams find that pattern rules miss the flaws that hurt them most, or that the features they need sit on paid plans billed per contributor. If you are weighing your options, these are the five Semgrep alternatives worth a close look:
- AISafe Labs
- Snyk
- SonarQube
- GitHub Code Security (CodeQL)
- Aikido
This comparison was published on November 11, 2026 and reflects the tools as we tested them then. Pricing and features change often, so check each vendor’s current pages for the latest.
What is Semgrep?
Semgrep is a static analysis tool that matches code against rules you can read and write. Its rules look like the code they match, and the open-source Community Edition runs locally and in CI at no cost. The Semgrep AppSec Platform adds cross-file analysis, Semgrep Supply Chain for dependencies, Semgrep Secrets for credentials, and AI features: Multimodal AI triage, Autofix pull requests and, in beta on paid plans, Agentic Workflows.
Semgrep fits into the developer workflow: it comments on pull requests, sends findings to Jira Cloud, and runs its CLI and CI scans on your own machines. The platform's Free Edition covers Code and Supply Chain for up to 10 contributors and 10 private repositories, and on the Teams plan Semgrep Code costs $30 per contributor a month.
Why organizations look for Semgrep alternatives
Semgrep does a lot well, but teams usually start looking elsewhere for one of three reasons.
1. Rules only find what they describe. Semgrep matches code against patterns, which is fast and precise for known risky sinks and configuration mistakes. A pattern cannot tell whether one user should be able to read another user's data, or whether a flow can be completed without the right authentication, and covering your own code well means writing and maintaining custom rules. In our benchmark on an open-source TypeScript application, none of the 92 findings Semgrep Community Edition reported was a real vulnerability (full comparison).
2. Costs grow with every contributor. On the Teams plan, Semgrep Code, Supply Chain and Secrets are priced separately, at $30, $30 and $15 per contributor a month, and a contributor is anyone who committed to a scanned private repository in the last 90 days. AI Autofix uses AI credits on top, and the Free Edition stops at 10 contributors and 10 private repositories.
3. It does not test the running application. Semgrep analyses source code. It does not run black-box or white-box pentests, prove that a finding can be exploited, or keep checking a live application for regressions, so teams that need that evidence have to add another tool.
Top 5 Semgrep alternatives
Here is how the leading alternatives compare, starting with the one we build.
#1 AISafe Labs
AISafe Labs is an application security platform that uses AI agents to test your code and your running application the way an attacker would. It runs code audits, black-box and white-box pentests, pull request reviews and continuous monitoring from one place, and its free plan includes a full SAST suite.
Where Semgrep matches code against rules your team chooses and maintains, AISafe Labs agents build a model of your codebase and trace user input from where it enters to where it reaches a sensitive operation. There are no rulesets to pick or keep up to date, and the agents find the flaws that depend on how your application is meant to behave, such as broken access control between teams and business-logic errors. A separate triage pass then confirms each finding, merges duplicates that share a root cause and shows its reasoning. Our AISafe Labs vs Semgrep comparison runs both on the same codebase, if you want to see them side by side.
Key features
- Code Audit: AI agents review the whole repository and report evidence-backed findings with exact code locations, the path user input takes, and remediation guidance.
- Code Scan, free: SAST, AI SAST, dependency scanning, secrets detection, licence risk and IaC scanning on the free Basic plan, with no card required.
- Black-box and white-box pentests: agents probe your live application over HTTP and in a browser, and white-box tests combine source access with live confirmation, so findings come with evidence you can replay.
- Pull request security review: every pull request is reviewed for security defects, using what earlier audits learned about the project.
- Endpoint monitoring: AISafe re-runs the proof of each fixed finding against your live application on a schedule and alerts you when a fix regresses.
- Fix verification (beta): check a patched source revision against the original finding before you deploy it.
- Built for coding agents: findings, remediation guidance and fix verification are available through the AISafe API, so your own coding agent can read a finding, write the patch and start the verification itself.
- Fits your workflow: export findings to Jira or Linear, get alerts in Slack or Teams, and run AISafe on your own infrastructure if you need to.
Why AISafe Labs stands out as a Semgrep alternative
- There are no rules to maintain. Agents read your application the way an attacker would, so coverage does not depend on someone writing a rule for each new pattern.
- It finds what rules cannot describe. Access-control gaps, authentication and session flaws, token exposure, SSRF and race conditions around business limits are the classes pattern rules tend to miss, and the ones AISafe Labs is built to find.
- It proves findings on the live application. Pentests confirm issues against your running application, so your team spends its time fixing instead of triaging.
- It covers the whole cycle. AISafe Labs does not stop at reporting: it gives remediation guidance, checks the fix, and keeps watching for regressions.
Pricing
The Basic plan is free and includes the full SAST suite. Pro starts at $40 a month and includes the same number of credits, which pay for code audits, pentests and continuous work; the price of a code audit depends on the size of the codebase and is shown before you start.
Ideal for: Teams that want more than a scanner: engineering and security teams that need to find logic and access-control flaws, test the running application, and close the loop from finding to verified fix, without moving to an enterprise contract.
#2 Snyk
Snyk is a developer security platform best known for dependency scanning. Snyk Open Source finds known vulnerabilities in third-party packages, Snyk Code scans your own source code with its DeepCode AI engine, and the platform also covers containers and infrastructure as code. Enterprise customers can add API and web DAST, secrets scanning and Evo, Snyk's AI pentesting.
Key features
- Snyk Open Source for known vulnerabilities in dependencies
- Snyk Code SAST, powered by the DeepCode AI engine
- Container and IaC scanning
- Pull request checks and Agent Fix patches
- API and web DAST and Evo AI pentesting on Enterprise
- A free plan with 5 projects and 100 Snyk Code tests a month
Ideal for: Teams whose biggest concern is vulnerable dependencies, and that want one developer platform for packages, code, containers and IaC.
#3 SonarQube
SonarQube is a code quality and code security platform built on rule-based static analysis. It is offered as SonarQube Cloud, paid self-hosted Server editions and a free self-hosted Community Build, and it is priced by lines of code instead of per contributor.
Key features
- Quality gates that block merges on reliability, maintainability and security issues
- Taint analysis for common injection flaws
- Secrets and IaC scanning
- AI CodeFix suggestions on the Team plan and up
- Self-hosted Server editions and a free Community Build
Ideal for: Engineering organisations that care about code quality and technical debt as much as security, and want one quality gate across many repositories.
#4 GitHub Code Security (CodeQL)
GitHub Code Security bundles CodeQL, GitHub's semantic code analysis engine, with Copilot Autofix and an AI scan of pull requests. Like Semgrep, CodeQL lets you extend its analysis, with queries instead of rules. Secret scanning is sold separately as Secret Protection, and Dependabot alerts are available on every repository.
Key features
- CodeQL dataflow analysis, with queries you can extend
- Copilot Autofix suggestions on alerts
- AI scan of pull requests, generally available since October 2026, and of whole repositories in public preview
- Free for public repositories
- Self-hosting through GitHub Enterprise Server
Ideal for: Teams already on GitHub that want code scanning built into pull requests, especially open-source projects, which get it for free.
#5 Aikido
Aikido is an all-in-one security platform that covers code, dependencies, cloud and runtime from one dashboard. On top of its scanners, it offers AI Code Analysis, where agents audit selected repositories, and AI pentests, both billed in credits.
Key features
- AI SAST, dependency, secrets and IaC scanning
- AutoFix pull requests, with 10 a month on the free plan
- Cloud posture management for AWS, GCP and Azure
- Zen, an in-app firewall that blocks attacks at runtime
- AI Code Analysis and AI pentests, paid in credits
- Jira and Linear sync from the Basic plan
Ideal for: Teams that want one vendor for code, cloud and runtime security, and prefer a flat monthly fee for each block of 10 users, with credits for AI work.
How to choose the right Semgrep alternative for you
The right choice depends on what you need your security tooling to catch and how your team works. When you compare options, check:
- Which vulnerabilities matter most. If access control, authentication and business logic are your biggest risks, look for a tool that reasons about your application rather than one that only matches patterns.
- Who maintains the detection logic. Custom rules and queries give you control, but someone has to write and update them. Decide whether your team has that time.
- Whether you need to test the running application. Static analysis and live testing find different problems. Decide whether you need pentests, and which plan includes them.
- How fixes get done. Look at whether the tool writes patches, guides your own coding agent, and verifies that a fix works.
- What it costs as you grow. Compare billing models: per contributor, per committer, per line of code, per block of users or per credit, and which features need an enterprise contract.
Make the switch from Semgrep to AISafe Labs
Semgrep is a fast, transparent scanner and a good fit for enforcing your own coding patterns in CI. As your application grows, AISafe Labs helps you go further: AI agents that find the logic and access-control flaws rules cannot describe, pentests that prove them on your live application, and fix verification that closes the loop.
You can start on the free Basic plan, which includes the full SAST suite, and run your first code audit in minutes. Start for free or see the full AISafe Labs vs Semgrep comparison.
