Qualor vs SonarQube

A SonarQube alternative that doesn't count your lines

Branch and merge request analysis, quality gates and coverage, free on your own server. Your gates, profiles and triage decisions come with you.

Get it on GitHubTry the live demo

What changesSonarQube → Qualor

Branch and merge request analysis
Commercial editions
Free
Licence
By lines of code
Free, paid plans per server
AI code review
A separate product
Built in, on your model
What you run
Server, database, Elasticsearch
One container

It only reads from SonarQube, so you can run both side by side until your team is ready.

Side by side

SonarQubeQualor
Licence modelCommunity Build is free; commercial editions are priced by lines of code analysedFree, MIT licensed
Branch and merge request analysisIn the commercial editionsIn the free edition
Review comments on merge requestsIn the commercial editionsGitLab and GitHub threads on the changed lines, in the free edition
AI review of merge requestsNot built into SonarQube; SonarSource offers AI pull request review as a separate productBuilt in and free in every edition: threads, suggested changes and answers to replies, on your own model, hosted or local
Quality gates on new codeYesYes
Where the rules come fromSonarSource's own analyzers and rulesQualor's own security rules for JavaScript, TypeScript, Python, Java, Go and C#, plus open-source analyzers: ESLint, Ruff, PMD, SpotBugs, detekt, SwiftLint, PHPStan, RuboCop, staticcheck, gosec, cppcheck, Roslyn and Roslynator for C#, stylelint, HTMLHint, OpenGrep, Gitleaks, Trivy, or any SARIF tool
Security analysis across files for C#Taint analysis in the commercial editionsIn the free edition: after your .NET build, request data is followed across files, projects, injected services and Razor views, and less certain findings are marked possible
Coverage importYesLCOV, Cobertura, JaCoCo
HostingSelf-hosted server or SonarQube CloudSelf-hosted: Docker Compose or Helm, on your own servers
What you runServer, database and an embedded ElasticsearchOne container, database included, or use your own PostgreSQL
AI assistanceAI CodeFix in the Enterprise and Data Center editions, on Sonar's models or your ownIn every edition, on your own model, hosted or local
MCP server for AI agentsSonarQube MCP ServerBuilt in and included in every edition. Your agent signs in as you and can do only what you can
Slack and Microsoft TeamsSlack appSlack and Teams in every edition: quality gate failures and a weekly security digest, set up with one webhook URL
MigrationNot applicableImports your gates and profiles, then your false positives and won't-fix decisions

Based on SonarSource's public documentation. Check their site for the current details of each edition.

Every gate, issue and vulnerability in one place

A project's overview: the quality gate that failed and the condition that failed it, then the measures on new code and their trends
The gate that failed and why, the figures that matter, and where the code is heading.
A project's issues, filtered by severity and status, with the severity of each and the rule, file and line that found it
Filter by severity, status and rule, then triage in bulk.
A finding of the AI review in Qualor, with the code it points at, the review's text and its suggested change
An AI finding in Qualor, with the review's text and its suggested change.
A project's Vulnerabilities tab: Log4Shell and Spring4Shell as Critical and exploited, each with its fixed versions, exploit probability, the releases it is in and its status
Each vulnerability with its fix and the releases it is in, exploited ones first. New ones show up without a new scan.

Explore the live demo → Qualor checking its own code. No account needed.

Bring your SonarQube setup with you

Point Qualor at your SonarQube server. Your quality gates and profiles come over. So do the false positives and won't-fix calls your team already made.

It only reads from SonarQube, so you can run both side by side until your team is ready.

Migrating from SonarQube

qualor import sonarqube \
  --url https://sonar.example.com \
  --dry-run
The dry run shows the plan and changes nothing.

Qualor fits when

  • You pay for a commercial SonarQube edition mainly for branch analysis, merge request decoration and gates.
  • Your codebase is large, or growing, and a licence priced by lines of code keeps getting more expensive.
  • You want AI review of merge requests on your own model, next to the gate, on one server you run.
  • You also want the dependencies of every release watched for new vulnerabilities, on the same server, without a separate tool.
  • You host your own GitLab or GitHub and want code quality on your own servers too.
  • You build ASP.NET Core applications and want security findings that follow request data through the whole solution, on every merge request.
  • You already trust ESLint, Ruff, PMD, detekt, SwiftLint, PHPStan, RuboCop, staticcheck or Semgrep-style rules and want one gate over all of them.

SonarQube may fit better when

  • You rely on SonarSource's own rules for a specific language, rule by rule.
  • You need a language no open-source analyzer covers well.
  • You want a hosted service rather than running a server yourself.

First analysis in about 15 minutes

  1. Start the server

    One container with its own database, on a machine with Docker.

  2. Connect GitLab or GitHub

    Tick your repositories. Qualor opens the merge request that sets up CI.

  3. Merge it

    From then on, every merge request gets a gate and comments on the changed lines.

Follow the quick startGet it on GitHub

Questions

Can Qualor replace SonarQube?

For what most teams use SonarQube for, yes: issues, coverage, duplication, complexity, quality gates on new code, and review comments on merge requests. Qualor runs proven open-source analyzers plus its own security rules, so it does not aim for rule-by-rule parity.

Does Qualor run SonarQube's rules?

Qualor runs proven open-source analyzers and its own security rules. For C#, JavaScript and TypeScript it also bundles SonarQube-compatible rules, so the import maps those one to one.

Migrating from SonarQube

How do I move from SonarQube?

Point the import at your SonarQube server. It brings over your quality gates and profiles, and after Qualor's first scan, the false positives and won't-fix decisions on your main branch. It only reads from SonarQube, and a dry run shows the plan first.

Migrating from SonarQube

What does it cost?

Nothing for the community edition, commercial use included, with no limit on lines of code. Business and Enterprise add single sign-on, an audit log and vulnerability alerts, from $4,900 per server a year.

Plans and prices

Try it on your next merge request

Star on GitHubFollow the quick start

Not ready to install? Star it to find it again.

  • MIT licensed
  • Signed images
  • Latest release 0.15.0, 10 November 2026
  • The demo analyses Qualor itself