Semgrep AppSec vs. Semgrep OSS

Get findings that are 5x more precise than OSS, with 2x more coverage spanning dependencies and hardcoded secrets.

  • Detect more true positives and less false positives across SAST, SCA, and Secrets
  • Make fix-rate the north star metric of your AppSec program with features that make remediation seamless and intuitive.
  • Confidently bring the right issues to the right developers at scale, so you can shift left without slowing them down.

Semgrep AppSec reduced false positives by 25% and uncovered 2.5x more true positives compared to OSS

- Fortune 500 customer comparing Semgrep and OSS in production

Semgrep
OSS

Core analysis

Developed to meet the requirements of modern AppSec teams and the developers they partner with, Semgrep AppSec semantically analyzes code across functions and files.

Developed to be as lightweight as possible, OSS is designed to only analyze dataflow within the boundaries of a single function.

Capabilities

  • SAST, SCA, and secrets scanning designed to orchestrate a continuous, shift-left AppSec program
  • Developer-oriented features (IDE plugin, PR comments, AI assistant, rule policies, engagement/fix-rate metrics)
  • Semgrep Assistant (accurate recommendations for code fixes, triage decisions, and prioritization powered by AI's understanding of code and Semgrep rules)
  • Semgrep Cloud Platform (orchestration, rule-management, reporting, SSO, RBAC, and other enterprise features)"
  • Lightweight, single-function SAST for individual developers and use cases with a high tolerance for false positives (security audits, penetration tests)

Coverage (engine)

  • Pro Engine supports over 30+ languages (with 15+ meeting our parsing, syntax, and rule requirements for GA support, and more being promoted to GA every month)
  • Pro Engine supports languages that are not available on OSS engine (C, C++, Apex)
  • Pro Engine supports cross-function and cross-file analysis (uncovers deeper, more complex vulnerabilities)
  • Languages on OSS Engine are limited to experimental support - they cannot meet the benchmarks and standards required for GA

Coverage (rules)

  • 900+ high-confidence, developer oriented Pro rules across all supported languages
  • Rules are monitored, benchmarked, and updated weekly by our security research team
  • Access to all community rules in the registry
  • OSS languages are community-supported, meaning Semgrep does not actively develop or maintain rules. Some languages include basic (non Pro) rules authored by Semgrep

    • *Check the registry and filter out Pro rules to see OSS rule coverage by language.

Accuracy

  • Cross-function and cross-file analysis greatly reduce false positives and noise
  • Advanced, language-specific engine capabilities improve accuracy and reduce noise for languages like C/C++
  • Reachability analysis (SCA) helps you prioritize the dependency vulnerabilities that are actually reachable in your code, reducing SCA false positives by 95% (for high and criticals)
  • Semantic analysis enables world-class precision in secrets detection, going beyond regex and entropy analysis to reduce noise and uncover more true positives
  • High-confidence Pro rules leverage cross-function and cross-file analysis to deliver precise findings, intended to be surfaced directly to developers
  • Single-function analysis generates false positives and limits context/dataflow analysis for findings
  • Basic and community-written rules supported by OSS are designed for audits and ad-hoc scans - they don't optimize for accuracy or developer actionability

Developer experience

  • Surface actionable findings to developers via PR comments with context, data-flow analysis, and tailored remediation advice (generated by AI)
  • Leverage AI to automatically triage and prioritize security issues. AppSec teams and developers can easily verify Assistant recommendations at scale instead of manually analyzing individual findings
  • Leverage AI to give developers auto-fix suggestions via PR comments. Recommendations are easy to verify and are helpful even when they require additional input
  • No features that impact the developer experience or how developers interact with findings
Core analysis
Semgrep

Developed to meet the requirements of modern AppSec teams and the developers they partner with, Semgrep AppSec semantically analyzes code across functions and files.

OSS

Developed to be as lightweight as possible, OSS is designed to only analyze dataflow within the boundaries of a single function.

Capabilities
Semgrep
  • SAST, SCA, and secrets scanning designed to orchestrate a continuous, shift-left AppSec program
  • Developer-oriented features (IDE plugin, PR comments, AI assistant, rule policies, engagement/fix-rate metrics)
  • Semgrep Assistant (accurate recommendations for code fixes, triage decisions, and prioritization powered by AI's understanding of code and Semgrep rules)
  • Semgrep Cloud Platform (orchestration, rule-management, reporting, SSO, RBAC, and other enterprise features)"
OSS
  • Lightweight, single-function SAST for individual developers and use cases with a high tolerance for false positives (security audits, penetration tests)
Coverage (engine)
Semgrep
  • Pro Engine supports over 30+ languages (with 15+ meeting our parsing, syntax, and rule requirements for GA support, and more being promoted to GA every month)
  • Pro Engine supports languages that are not available on OSS engine (C, C++, Apex)
  • Pro Engine supports cross-function and cross-file analysis (uncovers deeper, more complex vulnerabilities)
OSS
  • Languages on OSS Engine are limited to experimental support - they cannot meet the benchmarks and standards required for GA
Coverage (rules)
Semgrep
  • 900+ high-confidence, developer oriented Pro rules across all supported languages
  • Rules are monitored, benchmarked, and updated weekly by our security research team
  • Access to all community rules in the registry
OSS
  • OSS languages are community-supported, meaning Semgrep does not actively develop or maintain rules. Some languages include basic (non Pro) rules authored by Semgrep

    • *Check the registry and filter out Pro rules to see OSS rule coverage by language.

Accuracy
Semgrep
  • Cross-function and cross-file analysis greatly reduce false positives and noise
  • Advanced, language-specific engine capabilities improve accuracy and reduce noise for languages like C/C++
  • Reachability analysis (SCA) helps you prioritize the dependency vulnerabilities that are actually reachable in your code, reducing SCA false positives by 95% (for high and criticals)
  • Semantic analysis enables world-class precision in secrets detection, going beyond regex and entropy analysis to reduce noise and uncover more true positives
  • High-confidence Pro rules leverage cross-function and cross-file analysis to deliver precise findings, intended to be surfaced directly to developers
OSS
  • Single-function analysis generates false positives and limits context/dataflow analysis for findings
  • Basic and community-written rules supported by OSS are designed for audits and ad-hoc scans - they don't optimize for accuracy or developer actionability
Developer experience
Semgrep
  • Surface actionable findings to developers via PR comments with context, data-flow analysis, and tailored remediation advice (generated by AI)
  • Leverage AI to automatically triage and prioritize security issues. AppSec teams and developers can easily verify Assistant recommendations at scale instead of manually analyzing individual findings
  • Leverage AI to give developers auto-fix suggestions via PR comments. Recommendations are easy to verify and are helpful even when they require additional input
OSS
  • No features that impact the developer experience or how developers interact with findings

A highly customized instance of Semgrep is the best code security solution available to the public.

  • The Semgrep AppSec Platform makes generating, testing, and deploying custom rules accessible to all - even an AppSec team of one.

  • For both out-of-the-box and custom rules, Semgrep AppSec gives you precise control over which issues are surfaced to developers and how they're surfaced.

Security teams need aggregated, actionable data - but developers want the most precise tool in each category.

  • Semgrep gives your engineers best-in-breed tooling across SAST, SCA, and secrets scanning, for 30+ languages.

  • Since all Semgrep products are powered by the same core analysis engine, there's only one platform and dataset needed to gain insights and make improvements.

Developers don't even know it's running!

Jessica Grider Senior DevSecOps Engineer, PolicyGenius

Quick FAQ

Semgrep OSS is a lightweight and fast program analysis tool backed by community rules.

Semgrep OSS is suited for those that need to scan large amounts of code on an ad-hoc/one-time basis, with a high tolerance for false positives.

For example, consultants, security auditors, and pentesters may find Semgrep OSS suitable for their needs, and easy to implement into their existing workflows.

  • Analysis capabilities: Semgrep OSS is limited to single-file and single-function analysis. Pro Engine analyzes data flow across files and functions to uncover more true positives and less false positives.

  • Pro rules: Semgrep AppSec uses proprietary, high-confidence rules written by our research team that leverage cross-file and cross-function capabilities. Pro rules are written to generate minimal noise, so findings can be surfaced to developers without inundating them with false positives.

Semgrep AppSec is for security teams that need to shift left and scale their SAST, SCA, and Secrets coverage, but struggle to do so due to false positives and noise.

Semgrep AppSec integrates seamlessly into existing developer workflows, provides more accurate results, and has features like Assistant and PR comments that profoundly improve triage and remediation processes (for developers and security engineers alike).

  • Integration into CI and development flows: Products in the Semgrep AppSec platform are portable and fast like OSS, but include features that go beyond scan results to help security teams and developers triage and remediate issues before they hit main.

  • Control over the developer experience: Semgrep AppSec gives teams granular control over which issues are surfaced to developers and how they are surfaced. This lets AppSec teams shift left at their own pace, without risking their reputations.

  • Semgrep Assistant: Semgrep Assistant uses AI to speed up and reduce the cognitive load required during triage and remediation workflows (Auto-fix, auto-triage, etc).

  • Seamless integration into developer workflows: Semgrep AppSec can automatically surface findings to developers via PR comments, Jira tickets, etc - but only if security teams are confident in a rule's accuracy.