September 2026 Edition, published · The permanent record of that edition, superseded since. The current standing is on the category page →
Index › IT › Developer platform › SCA · September 2026 Edition

Software composition analysis

Asked as “software composition analysis tool”, and as “open source dependency vulnerability scanner”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. 43 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing · first-choice share
40%
Contested · Snyk Open Source 16%
40Trivy16Snyk Open Source14Mend.io – Mend SCA30others

40% of first choices, contested.

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment; they sit side by side and are never added together.

The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for a mid-market B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Trivy40%3%30endorsed leader
02Snyk Open Source16%15%47accepted challenger
03Mend.io – Mend SCA14%15%34accepted challenger
04OWASP Dependency-Check14%38%32criticized challenger
05OWASP Dependency-Track2%0%11accepted challenger
Show the eight products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
08Sonatype Lifecycle0%19%31accepted challenger
07Black Duck0%18%34accepted challenger
12GitHub Advanced Security0%15%13accepted challenger
13JFrog Xray0%8%13accepted challenger
10Grype0%7%14accepted challenger
06Endor Labs0%0%19accepted challenger
09FOSSA0%0%18accepted challenger
11OSV-Scanner0%0%13accepted challenger
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its product page.
All ten head-to-head pages: the top five products, each against each

Recommended versus criticized

Every product with at least 10 labels here, on both axes. The 30% line names a quadrant, not the verdict above: that one needs more than 40%.

Criticized challengerCriticized default
Negative label rate →
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
G10
11
12
13
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative50%
Key
01Trivy40%
02Snyk Open Source16%
03Mend.io – Mend SCA14%
04OWASP Dependency-Check14%
05OWASP Dependency-Track2%
06Endor Labs0%
07Black Duck0%
08Sonatype Lifecycle0%
09FOSSA0%
10Grype0%
11OSV-Scanner0%
12GitHub Advanced Security0%
13JFrog Xray0%

What they warned about

Zero of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity Sonar, Grok 4.20, Mistral Small, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Llama 4 Maverick, Qwen 3.7 Flash, Kimi K2, GLM 4.7 FlashX and MiniMax M2.5 changed. A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.
OWASP Dependency-Check
38%
12 of 32 labels negative · 7 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“You should actively avoid using the traditional OWASP Dependency-Check” Qwen 3.7 Flash, paraphrase prompt
Snyk Open Source
15%
7 of 47 labels negative · 7 of 12 models
“The industry heavyweight with top-tier developer UX, strong remediation suggestions, and a wide ecosystem, though it can be highly expensive.” Gemini 3.5 Flash, scale prompt
Black Duck
18%
6 of 34 labels negative · 5 of 12 models
“like older versions of Black Duck or Sonatype Nexus IQ) can be slow to install, heavy on resources, or difficult to configure at scale” Qwen 3.7 Flash, negative prompt
Mend.io – Mend SCA
15%
5 of 34 labels negative · 5 of 12 models
“reachability) works well for Java/JavaScript but poorly for Python, Go... Internal benchmarks claim "+46% better" remediation but lack external validation.” Kimi K2, negative prompt

What they cite

Twelve of the twelve models returned a source list in this edition: four return the pages they cited and eight the search results they consulted.

Sites the answers cite

63 of 72 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 12 of 12 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 892 links across 194 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

vendor site · Endor Labs46 answers · 81 citations · 11 models
vendor site · OX27 answers · 28 citations · 9 models
vendor site · Guideflow27 answers · 27 citations · 9 models
vendor site · Safeguard26 answers · 56 citations · 8 models
24 answers · 44 citations · 10 models
24 answers · 24 citations · 9 models
vendor site · Aikido23 answers · 29 citations · 11 models
vendor site · Cycode19 answers · 20 citations · 9 models
17 answers · 17 citations · 9 models
17 answers · 17 citations · 7 models
vendor site · Sonatype15 answers · 28 citations · 8 models
vendor site · Mend15 answers · 19 citations · 11 models

Pages the answers cite

The ten pages named in the most answers, by full address. A page here is one the models returned with a recommendation, not one the index endorses.

Search against answers

Each company's standing in the answers beside its site's footprint in Google search, one row a site: the products the models named on it with their shares, and the share they add up to; monthly searches on Google, and DataForSEO's estimate of AI search demand (modeled from search signals, directional, not a count of queries to any assistant), for the most-searched of the company's and its products' names (the name is in each row's hover text); estimated monthly organic visits to the site; and its best position in Google's top ten for “best software composition analysis tool”, “software composition analysis tool”, “software composition analysis tools”. US estimates from DataForSEO and Google's Ads Transparency Center. A small company's site, or a mid-sized company's site for its flagship, is marked company; a product on a large parent's site (Google, Microsoft) has no site figures. A column with no figures for this category is left out, and an empty cell means none were seen, not none exist. Two measurements side by side: neither is read as the cause of the other.
Company and productsShareOwn site citedName searches, GoogleAI search demand, est.Organic visitsPaid search a month, est.Google ads, last 30 daysBest Google position
Trivy trivy.dev40%2485,4001823,093
Snyk snyk.io
Snyk Open Source 16%
16%15712,10058161,651 company60
OWASP Dependency-Check owasp.org
OWASP Dependency-Check 14%, OWASP Dependency-Track 2%
16%9572010365,2223
Mend.io – Mend SCA mend.io14%10615,0597
GitHub parent site
GitHub Dependabot 5%, GitHub Advanced Security 0%
5%781,500,00031,479
Aikido aikido.dev
Aikido Security 5%
5%3262,400516,442 company$936120
Cycode cycode.com2%3880417,95449
OSS Review Toolkit2%
Endor Labs endorlabs.com0%472,4002816,33841
Black Duck blackduck.com0%11433,1003,08776,259733

Google's top ten for the three searches hold 22 sites; 4 of them are among the sites the models cited here (cycode.com, endorlabs.com, ox.security, sonatype.com). The first result for “best software composition analysis tool” is endorlabs.com.

How they answered

Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.
ShowHide
ModelDirect“What is the best software composition analysis tool for a mid-market B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which open source dependency vulnerability scanner would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B company?”Comparative“What are the top software composition analysis tools and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best software composition analysis tool for a company with a limited budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 500 person company evaluating a software composition analysis tool. What should we look at?”Negative“Which software composition analysis tools should I avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5no first choiceOWASP Dependency-CheckChanged
Two alternativesOWASP Dependency-Track, Trivy
no first choiceOSS Review Toolkit, OWASP Dependency-Check
Two alternativesDeepSCA, Snyk Open Source
no first choiceagainst: GitHub Advanced Security, JFrog Xray
GPT-5.4 miniMend.io – Mend SCA, Snyk Open Source
Three alternativesBlack Duck, GitHub Advanced Security, Sonatype Lifecycle
OWASP Dependency-CheckChanged
Three alternativesGrype, OWASP Dependency-Track, Trivy
Snyk Open Source
Five alternativesBlack Duck, GitHub Advanced Security, Mend.io – Mend SCA, Sonatype Lifecycle, Trivy
GitHub Dependabot
One alternativeOWASP Dependency-Check
against: Mend.io – Mend SCA, Snyk Open Source, Sonatype Lifecycle
no first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashAikido Security
Three alternativesMend.io – Mend SCA, Semgrep Supply Chain, Snyk Open Source
TrivyChanged
Two alternativesGitHub Dependabot, OSV-Scanner
against: OWASP Dependency-Check
Snyk Open Source
Four alternativesBlack Duck, Endor Labs, Socket, Sonatype Lifecycle
GitHub Dependabot, Trivy
Four alternativesAikido Security, FOSSA, Grype + Syft, Snyk Open Source
against: OWASP Dependency-Check
Aikido Security, Cycode
Four alternativesBlack Duck, Endor Labs, GitHub Advanced Security, Mend.io – Mend SCA
against: Snyk Open Source
against: OWASP Dependency-Check
Perplexity SonarMend.io – Mend SCA
Four alternativesBlack Duck, Endor Labs, Snyk Open Source, Sonatype Lifecycle
TrivyChanged
One alternativeOWASP Dependency-Check
no first choiceTrivy
One alternativeSemgrep Supply Chain
against: GitHub Advanced Security + Dependabot, Snyk Open Source
no first choiceagainst: OWASP Dependency-Check, Retire.js, Safety, bundler-audit
Grok 4.20Snyk Open Source
Five alternativesAikido Security, Black Duck, Mend.io – Mend SCA, SOOS, Sonatype Lifecycle
TrivyChanged
Four alternativesGrype, OSV-Scanner, OWASP Dependency-Check, OWASP Dependency-Track
Sonatype Lifecycle
Two alternativesBlack Duck, Snyk Open Source
Trivy
Two alternativesGitHub Dependabot, Snyk Open Source
against: Grype, OWASP Dependency-Check, Semgrep, Socket
Snyk Open Source
Four alternativesBlack Duck, Endor Labs, Mend.io – Mend SCA, Sonatype Lifecycle
against: Black Duck, Mend.io – Mend SCA, Snyk Open Source, Sonatype Lifecycle, Trivy
Mistral SmallMend.io – Mend SCA
Two alternativesOX Security, Sonatype Lifecycle
OWASP Dependency-CheckChanged
Two alternativesGrype, Trivy
Endor Labs
Nine alternativesBlack Duck, Cycode, FOSSA, GitLab Dependency Scanning, Mend.io – Mend SCA, Semgrep Supply Chain, Snyk Open Source, Sonatype Lifecycle, Wiz Code
against: SonarQube
OWASP Dependency-Track, Trivy
Two alternativesSnyk Open Source, Socket
no first choiceagainst: Black Duck, Sonatype Lifecycle
DeepSeek V4 FlashSnyk Open Source
Two alternativesMend.io – Mend SCA, Sonatype Lifecycle
TrivyChanged
Four alternativesGitHub Dependabot, Grype, OSV-Scanner, OWASP Dependency-Track
against: OWASP Dependency-Check
Snyk Open Source
Eight alternativesBlack Duck, Endor Labs, Grype, JFrog Xray, Socket, Sonatype Lifecycle, Syft, Trivy
against: OWASP Dependency-Check
Snyk Open Source, Trivy
Three alternativesFOSSA, OWASP Dependency-Track, Socket
against: OWASP Dependency-Check
no first choiceagainst: Black Duck, Mend.io – Mend SCA, OWASP Dependency-Check, Retire.js, Snyk Open Source, Sonatype Lifecycle, Tenable Legacy Container Security's SCA feature
Llama 4 MaverickMend.io – Mend SCA
One alternativeSonatype Lifecycle
no first choiceChangedno first choiceTrivy
Four alternativesOWASP Dependency-Check, Semgrep, Snyk Open Source, Socket
no first choicenothing named
Qwen 3.7 FlashMend.io – Mend SCA
Two alternativesRenovate, Snyk Open Source
against: Sonatype Lifecycle
TrivyChanged
One alternativeOSV-Scanner
against: OWASP Dependency-Check
Snyk Open Source
Four alternativesBlack Duck, GitHub Advanced Security (GHAS) / Dependabot, Mend.io – Mend SCA, Sonatype Lifecycle
OWASP Dependency-Check, Trivy
Three alternativesFOSSA, SOOS, Snyk Open Source
against: Black Duck, Mend.io – Mend SCA
no first choice
Three alternativesJFrog, Snyk Open Source, Sonatype Lifecycle
against: Black Duck, Sonatype Lifecycle
Kimi K2Snyk Open Source
Two alternativesMend.io – Mend SCA, Sonatype Lifecycle
TrivyChanged
One alternativeGrype + Syft
against: OWASP Dependency-Check
Snyk Open Source
Six alternativesBlack Duck, FOSSA, GitHub Advanced Security, JFrog Xray, Mend.io – Mend SCA, Sonatype Lifecycle
Trivy
Four alternativesGrype, OSV-Scanner, OWASP Dependency-Check, Syft
no first choiceagainst: Black Duck, Mend.io – Mend SCA, Snyk Open Source
GLM 4.7 FlashXMend.io – Mend SCA
Three alternativesBlack Duck, Snyk Open Source, Sonatype Lifecycle
OWASP Dependency-CheckChanged
Four alternativesGrype, OSV-Scanner, Syft, Trivy
Snyk Open Source
Six alternativesAikido Security, Black Duck, Endor Labs, Mend.io – Mend SCA, OWASP Dependency-Check, Sonatype Lifecycle
against: GitHub Advanced Security
Trivy
Two alternativesGitHub Dependabot, OWASP Dependency-Check
no first choiceagainst: OWASP Dependency-Check, Snyk Open Source
MiniMax M2.5Snyk Open Source
Three alternativesBlack Duck, GitLab Dependency Scanning, Mend.io – Mend SCA
TrivyChanged
Three alternativesGrype, OSV-Scanner, OWASP Dependency-Check
Endor Labs, Snyk Open Source
Six alternativesBlack Duck, Checkmarx SCA, FOSSA, Mend.io – Mend SCA, Semgrep Supply Chain, Sonatype Lifecycle
Trivy
Three alternativesBlack Duck, OWASP Dependency-Track, Snyk Open Source
no first choicenothing named
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

The record

One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency.
Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 14:08no05 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 14:02yes510 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 10:23yes2227 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 09:59yes203 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-17 12:20yes3517 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 13:13yes54 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 13:45yes1720 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 14:04yes52 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 13:07yes2489 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 13:45yes929 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 11:25yes2979 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 13:36no045 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 10:52yes179 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 10:48yes37 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 13:59yes1122 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 13:46yes205 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-17 11:44yes2814 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 11:51yes53 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 13:06yes918 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 11:21yes53 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 12:50yes531 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 12:26yes1241 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 11:33yes1093 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 11:35yes959 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 12:47yes107 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 13:52yes914 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 11:02yes1931 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 11:24yes207 s
ComparativeGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-17 12:55yes2717 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 14:14yes59 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-17 13:08yes2251 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 12:15yes53 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 13:31no043 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 12:54yes1246 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 09:41yes24119 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 12:42yes511 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 11:08yes97 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 13:04yes24 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 13:07yes924 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 12:43yes205 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-17 12:23yes3217 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 11:59yes55 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 11:08yes812 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 10:45yes53 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 12:51yes923 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 12:28yes923 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 12:31yes2163 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 10:41yes1436 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 14:08no05 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 11:23no07 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 13:41yes7256 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 14:05yes208 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-17 10:39yes1313 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 13:39no08 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 13:58yes1824 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 13:50yes54 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 10:12no047 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 10:42yes1027 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 10:48yes1590 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 14:09no014 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 10:12yes178 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 14:00yes68 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 13:19yes2523 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 11:08yes206 s
Negative framingGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-17 11:39yes3618 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 10:23yes55 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 09:38yes2921 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 12:25yes52 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 10:18yes525 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 10:10yes2445 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 09:25yes26111 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 13:13no014 s

Normalization in this category

Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.

ShowHide
Category-scoped readings
Aikido read as Aikido Security
Broadcom Mend (formerly WhiteSource) read as Mend.io – Mend SCA
Checkmarx read as Checkmarx SCA
GitLab read as GitLab Dependency Scanning
GitLab (Dependency Scanning) read as GitLab Dependency Scanning
GitLab Ultimate read as GitLab Dependency Scanning
Mend read as Mend.io – Mend SCA
Mend (formerly WhiteSource) read as Mend.io – Mend SCA
Mend.io read as Mend.io – Mend SCA
Mend.io (formerly WhiteSource) read as Mend.io – Mend SCA
Snyk read as Snyk Open Source
Snyk (Free Tier) read as Snyk Open Source
Snyk (commercial) read as Snyk Open Source
Snyk Free Tier read as Snyk Open Source
Snyk Team read as Snyk Open Source
Sonatype read as Sonatype Lifecycle
Sonatype (Lifecycle & Nexus) read as Sonatype Lifecycle
Sonatype (Nexus Intelligence) read as Sonatype Lifecycle
Veracode read as Veracode SCA
WhiteSource read as Mend.io – Mend SCA
WhiteSource (now Mend) read as Mend.io – Mend SCA
Unresolved, counted raw
DeepSCA
Tenable Legacy Container Security's SCA feature
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
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