Black Duck SCA vs Grype
Black Duck SCA
blackduck.comGrype
github.comSide by side
| Figure | Black Duck SCA | Grype |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | Free |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | Yes |
| Web | Yes | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 2 | 2 |
| Spec score · Software Composition Analysis Software | 7.8 (#30) | 8.7 (#4) |
| Headquarters | Burlington, Massachusetts, United States | Santa Barbara, California, United States |
| Integrations | Black Duck lists integrations across IDEs, source control, CI/build tools, package managers, workflow tools, and production capabilities, and says it offers REST APIs. | The installation documentation provides a Docker image and lists community installation options including Homebrew, MacPorts, Winget, Scoop, and Snapcraft. |
| Purpose | Black Duck SCA helps teams manage security, quality, and license compliance risks in open source and third-party code. | Grype scans container images, filesystems, and SBOMs for known vulnerabilities. |
| SBOM formats | Black Duck SCA supports SBOM import and export in SPDX and CycloneDX formats. | Grype accepts Syft JSON, SPDX JSON/XML/tag-value and CycloneDX JSON/XML SBOMs. |
Plans
Black Duck SCA
- Open source detection (enterprise edition)Priced on request
- Standard EditionPriced on request
In their own words
Black Duck SCA
Black Duck SCA has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.
Grype
Grype is a free, Apache-2.0-licensed scanner for known vulnerabilities in container images, filesystems, and software bills of materials (SBOMs). It can also scan directories, individual files, archives, and packages identified by PURL or CPE. Coverage includes major operating-system package ecosystems and language packages such as Ruby, Java, JavaScript, Python, .NET, Go, PHP, and Rust; supported image formats include Docker, OCI, and Singularity. Grype uses EPSS, KEV, and risk scoring to help prioritize findings. OpenVEX can filter results or add context. Reports can be emitted as a table, JSON, SARIF, or a custom Go template. The project supports SBOM generation and runs on Linux, macOS, Windows, or in a self-hosted setup. Installation options include a Docker image and community packages such as Homebrew, MacPorts, Winget, Scoop, and Snapcraft. Individual package scanning is described as useful for lightweight vulnerability checks and compliance scanning of specific dependencies. Security updates are applied only to the most recent release, and vulnerability-report support is described as best effort.