Wiz Code Alternatives: 6 Tools Compared for 2026

Wiz first entered the market as a cloud security platform, and that remains its forte. Its strength is finding and ranking cloud security issues without installing agents on your system. Later, in 2024, Wiz Code emerged as their first foray into code security, initially focused on code concerns that are more… cloudy. Think scanning IaC templates, detecting secrets, and analyzing containers. 

But their recent venture into SAST expands their scope beyond infrastructure definitions into the app code itself, covering more of the software development lifecycle. What teams want to know is if this detour from their core competency provides them with the developer-first experience that modern AppSec teams deserve, or not. The code security capabilities are limited, and it still doesn’t have DAST, so the jury is still out.

If you're looking for alternatives that offer stronger code scanning, DAST coverage, or better developer workflows without the infrastructure overhead, there are several options worth considering. Our guide compares Wiz Code with six alternatives based on coverage, developer experience, AI-powered triage, and cost, so you can figure out what works best for you.

What problems does Wiz Code solve?

Wiz Code is an extension of the Wiz CNAPP platform that adds code security scanning to its cloud infrastructure monitoring. It brings together SAST, SCA, secrets detection, IaC scanning, container security, and malware detection 

The main value proposition is the Security Graph, which connects code vulnerabilities to your living cloud resources. Let’s say you have a SQL injection vulnerability in your code. Wiz Code can show you whether that code is deployed, which database it connects to, and whether that database is exposed to the internet (and if it is, you have a big security issue on your hands). 

If you’re already using Wiz for cloud security, Wiz Code lets you add SAST, SCA, and IaC scanning without adding another vendor. It scans for vulnerabilities in AI-generated code, links IaC misconfigurations to deployed cloud resources, and gives security teams a single view of code risks alongside cloud risks, containers, Kubernetes, and VM vulnerabilities.

What are the Challenges with Wiz Code?

Wiz Code is primarily a cloud security platform that only recently added code scanning, as we’ve discussed, so Wiz still has a cloud focus more than anything else. As far as code scanning goes, Wiz Code is pretty basic and more lightweight than many other options on the market. 

The SAST and SCA capabilities are functional, but secondary to the infrastructure focus, and the features Wiz Code does provide are not particularly developer-friendly. It surfaces its raw findings without context or prioritization, leaving teams with a bunch of work to figure out which alerts are real.  And while Wiz does a little noise reduction, users don’t get much help with remediation. Wiz AutoFix is constrained to the main branch in many implementations, making it nearly unusable for PR-based workflows. Even when available, it's limited to dependency upgrades rather than fixing issues across SAST, IaC, and containers that more mature platforms provide. 

When false positives are high, and tools don’t help developers fix the issues, we already know two-thirds of teams bypass security, dismiss findings, or delay fixes (so they can get back to their day jobs of writing code and shipping products), which is why it’s important to choose a code security offering that developers actually trust. 

One way Wiz Code is lightweight is its secrets scanning capability– it can merely detect secrets, but doesn’t tell you if they are still active, identify granted permissions or auto-downgrade. It cannot prevent secrets before they reach the default branch (PR gating) or even before they reach the commit history (pre-commit hooks). 

Moreover, there's no DAST capability for API testing or runtime vulnerability detection (they have to partner to get integrations for this). Organizations typically still need separate solutions for DAST and full compliance automation.

Ultimately, Wiz Code is an augmentation of the cloud tool, so it’s not really something you’ll use (or be able to get) as a standalone tool. The Security Graph correlation features only work as part of the broader Wiz platform, which will cost you over $100k annually for mid-sized deployments. In general, Wiz Code is geared toward security teams and CISOs rather than developers, with limited IDE integration and slower feedback loops. a. Wiz Code may make sense if you’re already knee-deep in Wiz Cloud and you want a lightweight add-on for basic IaC and secrets scanning. 

But if you want to shift left, you need developer security, and you can’t do developer security without AppSec embedded in the SDLC, you’ll be looking for alternatives.

What are the top Wiz Code alternatives?

We evaluated alternatives based on coverage (SAST, SCA, DAST, IaC, containers, cloud security), developer experience (IDE integration, CI/CD, PR feedback), AI-powered triage and remediation, pricing transparency, and deployment speed.

Aikido Security

Developer-first security platform with AI-powered triage and automated fixes

Aikido Security secures everything end-to-end in one platform for code, cloud and runtime that is geared towards developers and security teams from start-ups all the way to enterprises. Aikido runs everywhere developers operate: IDE, pre-commit hooks, CI/CD pipelines, PR scanning, and periodic repo scans. Wiz Code, like many code scanning tools, provides hundreds of findings to developers and calls it ‘security’. Aikido works differently.

Aikido's SAST engine includes production-grade cross-file taint tracking that follows data flow across your entire codebase, not just within individual files. This deeper analysis catches vulnerabilities that require understanding how data moves between components, which Wiz Code's recently launched SAST capability doesn't match in depth or maturity. 

Through AI AutoTriage and reachability analysis, Aikido filters out non-exploitable CVEs in order to surface only the vulnerabilities that are actually callable in their code. As a result, Aikido cuts down false positives by 85% compared to other tools, so developers can spend their time fixing actual problems. Aikido does all this directly from code with no agents required, while Wiz Code requires a separate runtime agent (Wiz Sensor) to do its more basic analysis.

When something does need fixing, Aikido's AI AutoFix generates pull requests with the code changes already written. For SAST issues, IaC misconfigurations, and container vulnerabilities, Aikido analyzes breaking changes to determine if upgrades will break anything in your codebase, then provides PRs that are ready to merge with those safe dependency upgrades incorporated. Wiz Code's AutoFix is constrained to the main branch in many implementations, making it nearly unusable for PR-based workflows, and when it does work, it's limited to basic dependency bumps. 

Aikido’s secrets scanning doesn’t just stop at detection like Wiz Code, it checks if they’re still active, maps permissions, enables auto-downgrades and supports pre-commit protection.  

Aikido also lowers the barrier to entry to get started. You can deploy Aikido in 10 minutes through a GitHub App or CLI, while Wiz Code requires the broader Wiz platform and waiting through enterprise sales cycles. Aikido Pro costs around $15k annually for 20 users, with transparent pricing you can see without talking to sales. Wiz easily runs over $100,000 with infrastructure-based pricing tied to your cloud resource count, which scales unpredictably as your environment grows and changes.

• Full DAST and API security coverage. REST and GraphQL scanning, authenticated DAST, and runtime firewall protection catch vulnerabilities that static analysis misses. Wiz Code doesn't include DAST or API scanning.
• Compliance automation built in. Pre-configured checks for ISO 27001, SOC 2, NIST, PCI, HIPAA, DORA, and NIS2, with direct integration to Vanta, Drata, and Secureframe. Wiz Code requires a separate GRC platform.
• Faster scans. Aikido's serverless architecture and optimized rules deliver faster results. In customer-run benchmarks across three large open-source repos, Aikido's combined SAST + SCA scans beat Wiz Code's SAST-only scans in tests. Aikido scanned Jellyfish in 12 seconds versus Wiz Code's 36 seconds, and Grafana in 61 seconds versus Wiz Code's 115 seconds.

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One company that tried both tools said, "We trialled Wiz Code at the same time as Aikido. It was harder to set up than Aikido.” Aikido stood out for being an all-around strong option, and it didn’t break the bank. 

Unlike other code security alternatives, Aikido also offers AI pentesting, delivering the depth of manual penetration testing without the weeks-long turnaround and cost overhead. 

Aikido Security vs. Wiz Code: Feature Comparison

Top Features

• AI AutoTriage and reachability analysis reduce false positives
• AI AutoFix generates PRs for SAST, IaC, and container vulnerabilities with minimal safe upgrades
• SAST, SCA, DAST, secrets, IaC, container, CSPM, all in a single platform
• Runtime protection through an in-app firewall for live threat blocking
• Malware detection for uploaded files and dependencies
• Compliance mapping to 10+ frameworks with GRC tool integration
• Agentic AI Pentesting to find complex vulnerabilities

Snyk

SCA-focused platform with established container security capabilities

Snyk started as a developer-first alternative to security-team platforms like Checkmarx and Veracode, and that early focus drove its popularity. It maintains a database covering open source vulnerabilities. Container and Kubernetes security scanning is available, along with IaC analysis for Terraform, CloudFormation, and Kubernetes manifests.

To support developers, Snyk’s DeepCode AI generates fix suggestions for some code vulnerabilities. It also has IDE integrations for VS Code, IntelliJ, Eclipse, and Visual Studio, and scans directly in developer environments instead of requiring centralized infrastructure like Wiz Code. 

Unfortunately, after its initial success, Snyk pivoted to chase some deals and grew through acquisitions, and… it shows. The IDE plugin is heavy and slows down dev environments. The platform feels like a bundle of separate tools with clunky integrations (especially Jira, which doesn't sync properly) and multiple UIs to learn. Instead of letting developers fix issues inline, Snyk makes you create a Jira ticket for everything. The product floods developers with false positives because it doesn’t have intelligent filtering, and reachability analysis is only available in higher-tier plans.

Snyk doesn’t have cloud security, and, like Wiz Code, Snyk doesn't include DAST, so you’ll have to buy a few different tools to get broad security coverage. Pricing gets expensive fast through feature-based tiers and add-ons for CI/CD, API access, and reporting. Full enterprise coverage can exceed $50k annually, and you need to spend at least $20k to get human support. Things to keep in mind if you’re considering Snyk.

Top Features

• SCA with vulnerability database covering 1M+ open source packages
• DeepCode AI for automated fix suggestions
• Container and Kubernetes security scanning
• IaC security for Terraform, CloudFormation, Kubernetes manifests
• IDE integrations (VS Code, IntelliJ, Eclipse, Visual Studio)
• License compliance and policy management

Checkmarx

Enterprise SAST platform with legacy on-premises roots

Checkmarx is a long-time SAST platform, established in 2006, known for its deep code inspection. While Checkmarx has since moved to the cloud with Checkmarx One, it built its reputation over two decades in regulated industries like finance and healthcare, where deep code inspection and detailed audit trails mattered more than scan speed. Historically known for hours-long batch scans, Checkmarx One now takes about 30 minutes to scan a codebase. Checkmarx has broad language support, scanning code in dozens of languages, including Java, C#, JavaScript, TypeScript, Python, C/C++, PHP, Ruby, Go, and COBOL.

As part of its focus on SAST, the exploitable path analysis feature traces how an attacker could exploit a vulnerability by showing the full call path from user input to vulnerable functions. DAST and API security testing are available through add-on modules, which Wiz Code does not offer at all. Checkmarx has strong brand recognition in organizations that prioritize compliance and provides detailed analysis with enterprise governance and reporting features built for security teams.

Checkmarx is entering a new stage by sunsetting its on-prem offering and pushing users to migrate to Checkmarx One, so organizations now have to decide whether to migrate or explore alternatives. Checkmarx One is a lift-and-shift of the on-prem engine to the cloud rather than a ground-up rebuild, which means it still relies on centralized scanning that requires awkward workarounds to fit into CI/CD pipelines. Its interface is also not built for today’s developers, but for security analysts.

Checkmarx scans code in isolation without cloud security context or infrastructure correlation, nor does it have AI-powered prioritization, so it also has high false positive noise like Wiz Code. Setup takes weeks to months because the platform still carries its on-prem baggage. There's no AI AutoFix or PR generation, so developers get a list of problems without any help actually fixing them.

Top Features

• SAST scanning with broad language support (25+ languages)
• SCA for dependency vulnerabilities and license compliance
• IaC security scanning for cloud templates
• Integrated developer training (Codebashing)
• DAST is available as a separate add-on module
• On-premises and cloud deployment options

GitHub Advanced Security (GHAS)

Native security scanning for GitHub-centric development teams

If your team lives in GitHub, GHAS carries the advantage that you never have to leave that environment, but it is a lightweight alternative to other code security platforms. For some organizations, GHAS comes bundled with their GitHub Enterprise agreement, which makes it free for them. In that case, GHAS is a good option for teams just getting started with security, because there's no onboarding process or separate login to get started. As far as capabilities, it covers SAST and SCA specifically, scanning both first-party and third-party code.

GitHub Advanced Security provides a good baseline of real-time feedback during development, code scanning, secrets scanning and dependency reviews. It uses Dependabot for dependency management– it’s an open-source tool that natively integrates with GitHub repositories, automates pull requests and patches with minimal configuration. In general, GHAS is easier for developers to adopt than alternatives.

But of course, GHAS only works if you're on GitHub, so if you use GitLab, Bitbucket, or Azure DevOps (which Wiz Code and Aikido Security both support), you're out of luck. There's no DAST capability, no cloud security posture management, and no infrastructure scanning (you’ll need someone else to check your Terraform or CloudFormation templates for misconfigurations). Wiz gives you cloud and infra scanning in its CNAPP product.

While Dependabot handles dependency updates, it's pretty basic compared to dedicated SCA tools. CodeQL, GitHub's semantic analysis engine, lets you write custom security queries in its query language. However, it can time out on large repositories after an hour or two, which becomes a problem for enterprises with big codebases. 

And like Wiz Code, GHAS doesn't offer AI triage or reachability analysis, so you're manually reviewing every alert to figure out what actually matters.

Top Features

• CodeQL for semantic SAST analysis with custom queries
• Dependabot for automated dependency updates
• Secret scanning with push protection
• Native PR integration shows findings inline with code changes
• Custom auto-triage rules for Dependabot alerts
• Security dashboard within GitHub

Further Reading:

GitHub Advanced Security Alternatives

Mend.io

Enterprise-grade SCA and license compliance management

Mend, formerly WhiteSource, focuses exclusively on open source dependencies with deeper analysis than Wiz Code's SCA. Mend provides advanced dependency graph analysis and transitive vulnerability tracking, and offers license risk management and policy enforcement.

Mend’s reachability analysis identifies which vulnerable dependencies are actually called in your code, filtering out theoretical risks that never execute in practice. It also has a remediation engine that calculates minimal safe upgrades to avoid breaking changes, using a 'Least Vulnerable Package' strategy that evaluates the entire dependency tree rather than blindly upgrading to the latest version.

Mend is a focused, single-purpose tool that only scans dependencies, not proprietary code, so you have to look at multiple, separate tools for SAST to get your basics covered. With its narrow focus, Mend doesn't offer cloud security or infrastructure correlation like Wiz Code's Security Graph. And like Wiz, there's no DAST capability. Container scanning is limited to dependency analysis rather than full image security.

Organizations still need some other tools for code scanning, DAST, and cloud security, making Mend a point solution instead of being able to solve many of your security needs. And the usage-based pricing model can get expensive, especially considering it’s only covering a narrow slice of your security. Some teams look for Mend alternatives if they need more than SCA.

Top Features

• SCA with database of over 200M open source components
• License compliance and policy enforcement
• Reachability analysis to filter unexploitable vulnerabilities
• Supply chain security and dependency graph mapping
• Automated pull requests for dependency updates
• Integration with legal and compliance workflows

Veracode

Binary analysis and compliance reporting for regulated industries

Veracode is a long-time player in security scanning, having launched in the waterfall era days in 2006, like Checkmarx. Their technical bet was binary scanning, analyzing compiled applications instead of source code. At the time, this solved a real problem because scanning C and C++ applications involved inspecting both source and compiled binaries to do reliable taint analysis. Veracode was revolutionary for its time by launching a cloud-hosted product, meaning customers could upload builds for analysis without installing more on-site infrastructure (For reference, AWS launched in the same year, and cloud computing wasn’t part of the common vernacular).

Veracode, because of its focus on binaries, can analyze compiled applications without source code access (Wiz Code requires source). It’s also built for creating audit-friendly documentation in regulated industries, like finance, healthcare, and government. Veracode includes dynamic testing and offers manual security expert analysis beyond its automated scanning (which Wiz Code does not).

Unfortunately, what was groundbreaking in 2006 is not really appropriate for CI/CD workflows (or other modern software practices). Veracode's upload-and-wait model takes hours to days for results. Veracode scans applications in isolation without any cloud security context or infrastructure correlation, and the interface is geared toward security analysts with minimal IDE integration. 

Veracode also gatekeeps the product, with months of setup before you can even find the first vulnerability with it (the company bizarrely requires a compatibility questionnaire before they’ll let you try it out). And unlike some other Wiz alternatives on the list, Veracode doesn't offer AI AutoTriage or reachability analysis, and AI AutoFix is only available for a few languages. And like Wiz, pricing is hidden and expensive.

Top Features

• Binary and bytecode SAST analysis without source code
• DAST for dynamic application testing
• SCA for dependency vulnerability scanning
• Compliance reporting for SOC 2, PCI DSS, HIPAA
• Sandbox environment for safe code analysis
• Human-assisted penetration testing options
• Policy enforcement and workflow automation

Further Reading: Veracode Alternatives

Which Wiz Code alternative is right for you?

Aikido Security delivers the strongest alternative to Wiz Code by combining coverage, cost efficiency, and developer experience. Aikido provides SAST, SCA, DAST, IaC, containers, CSPM, secrets, malware, and API testing in a single platform. AI AutoTriage and reachability analysis reduce false positives, and AI AutoFix generates ready-to-merge PRs for SAST, IaC, and container issues. 

Another notable mention is GitHub Advanced Security for being a solid option for GitHub-centric teams who want security scanning without leaving their existing workflow, though it's limited to GitHub repositories only.

Organizations using Wiz for cloud security might consider keeping Wiz for CSPM while replacing Wiz Code with Aikido Security to get superior code security, DAST coverage, and developer experience at a lower cost. If your organization isn’t integrated with the Wiz ecosystem, Aikido saves you the need for the expensive tool in the first place.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

1. Is Wiz Code a standalone code security tool?

No. Wiz Code is an extension of the Wiz cloud security (CNAPP) platform. It can’t be purchased or used independently from Wiz Cloud. Its Security Graph and correlation features only work within the broader Wiz ecosystem, which is typically priced based on cloud infrastructure usage rather than developer seats. If you're looking for a standalone AppSec platform focused purely on developer workflows, tools like Aikido Security, Snyk, or GitHub Advanced Security may be better suited.

2. Does Wiz Code include DAST or API security testing?

No. Wiz Code does not offer native DAST (Dynamic Application Security Testing) or API fuzzing. Organizations that need runtime vulnerability detection, authenticated scanning, or API security testing must integrate third-party tools. Alternatives like Aikido Security, Checkmarx (add-on), and Veracode provide DAST capabilities, while most other Wiz Code competitors focus only on static analysis (SAST/SCA).

3. How does Wiz Code compare to Aikido Security?

Wiz Code is cloud-first and adds lightweight SAST, SCA, secrets, and IaC scanning to its CNAPP platform. However, it lacks DAST, reachability analysis, PR-native AutoFix, and developer-first integrations like pre-commit protection. Aikido Security provides broader coverage in a single platform, including SAST, SCA, DAST, API security, IaC, containers, CSPM, secrets with liveness checks, and AI-powered triage and AutoFix,  while integrating directly into IDEs, PR workflows, and CI/CD pipelines. For teams prioritizing developer experience and shift-left security, Aikido is typically the stronger option.

4. Why do teams look for Wiz Code alternatives?

Teams often look for alternatives to Wiz Code because:

• Wiz Code lacks native DAST and API security testing
• False positives require manual triage
• AutoFix is limited and not PR-native in many setups
• Secrets scanning only detects leaks without validating liveness
• Pricing depends on cloud infrastructure size, often exceeding $100k annually

Organizations that want developer-first workflows, AI-powered prioritization, transparent pricing, and full SDLC coverage often evaluate alternatives like Aikido Security, Snyk, or GitHub Advanced Security.

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