Vulkro vs Snyk
Snyk is the gravity well of commercial SAST + SCA. Big enterprise deployments, IDE plugins for every editor, polished onboarding, extensive vulnerability database. So why pick Vulkro?
This is the comparison where the architectural distinction is sharpest. Snyk is a SaaS-first product; Vulkro is offline-first. Pick the one that matches your data-handling posture.
At a glance
| Vulkro | Snyk Code | Snyk Open Source | |
|---|---|---|---|
| License | Closed-source detectors. Free tier, or Pro per-term, no auto-renewal | SaaS, per-developer, auto-renews | Same |
| Runs where | Your machine | CLI runs locally, snapshots uploaded for analysis | Same |
| Source code uploaded | Never | Yes (encrypted, retention configurable) | Yes (manifest + lockfile) |
| Telemetry | None | Mandatory (account-scoped) | Mandatory |
| Air-gap support | Native (VULKRO_OFFLINE=1) | Limited (broker proxy required) | Limited |
| Languages | Python, JS/TS, Go, Ruby, Java/Kotlin, C#, PHP, Apex | Most modern languages | Same |
| CVE / SCA | Local bundle (OSV+NVD+KEV+EPSS), in-scan | Snyk DB, cloud lookup | Same |
| Reachability filter | Yes, default-on | Yes (Snyk Code reach) | Yes |
| AI features | None (deliberate) | DeepCode AI fix, AI Trust | Yes |
| Public benchmark | Yes (reproducible) | Vendor-published claims only | Same |
Benchmark numbers
| Vulkro | Snyk Code | |
|---|---|---|
| Precision (how few false alarms) | leads | varies |
| Catch rate (how many real bugs found) | leads | varies |
| Overall accuracy score | leads | varies |
(Locked numbers ship in the public changelog on each release. You
can reproduce them yourself with bench/comparison/run.sh --tier1 --tools vulkro,snyk. Snyk runs need snyk auth and an account;
the benchmark skips Snyk when it is not authenticated.)
The architectural distinction
Snyk is a SaaS product. The CLI is a convenient surface, but the analysis (for Snyk Code) and the vulnerability database (for Snyk Open Source) live in Snyk's cloud. Even when you point Snyk at a local project:
- Code snippets are uploaded to Snyk's servers for analysis.
- Findings are stored in your Snyk account, visible to anyone with org access.
- The CLI requires authentication; offline operation is limited to running the broker proxy.
- Pricing is per-developer per-month, and it auto-renews unless you explicitly cancel.
Vulkro is offline-first. The detection engine + CVE bundle
both live on your machine. VULKRO_OFFLINE=1 enforces zero
network calls at the process boundary. Vulkro Free is permanent
(no card, no expiry) with the core scan and supply-chain catalog.
Vulkro Pro is per-term, $19/month or $149/year, and the term
expires. After expiry the CLI drops to the Free tier and
keeps running; the Pro-only depth (compliance packs, portfolio,
extended languages, deep packs, active probe) prompts for renewal.
CVE bundle updates land on Free and Pro on the same schedule.
You buy a Pro refresh when you decide to.
The contrast cuts hardest in three buyer scenarios:
- Defense / FedRAMP / regulated industries where customer data cannot touch a vendor cloud. Snyk's broker proxy mitigates some of this; Vulkro removes the question entirely (no proxy needed; no upload exists).
- Open-source maintainers who want a deterministic CI scan that doesn't depend on a vendor account or a paid tier.
- Procurement teams burned by auto-renewing SaaS lines that nobody owns the cancellation for. Vulkro's term-expires model is a positioning advantage here.
When to pick Snyk
- You're already deep in the Snyk ecosystem (IDE plugins, GitHub PR comments, JIRA / ServiceNow integrations).
- You want managed onboarding, dedicated CSMs, and SOC 2 contractual coverage from the vendor.
- AI-assisted fix (DeepCode AI) is a key part of your workflow.
- You're OK with cloud upload and the SaaS billing posture.
When to pick Vulkro
- Source upload to a vendor is a hard "no" in your contract or policy.
- Your scan must work in CI without authenticating to a vendor service.
- You want the bench numbers (precision / recall / F1) to be externally reproducible, not vendor-published.
- You prefer per-term licensing that expires rather than auto-renews. Renewal is a deliberate buy, not a calendar event.
- You want OWASP API Top 10 + LLM Top 10 (LLM01 / LLM06) without a separate AI Trust add-on.
What about migration?
Vulkro doesn't yet have a direct Snyk-rule-import shim like
vulkro rules import-semgrep.
Snyk Code rules are proprietary and not exported in a portable
format. The migration path is:
- Run Snyk for the categories you already track.
- Run Vulkro alongside; both emit SARIF that GitHub Code Scanning ingests.
- Diff the findings for a release cycle to calibrate trust.
- Drop the Snyk subscription on renewal (no clawback; you keep any existing findings you've already exported).
Try both side by side
# In your project root:
vulkro scan . --format sarif > vulkro.sarif
snyk test --sarif-file-output=snyk.sarif
# Diff in your favourite SARIF viewer.
Both tools emit SARIF; GitHub Code Scanning ingests either format.
See also: Vulkro vs Semgrep, Vulkro vs Bearer, Vulkro vs CodeScan, Safety, CVE bundle changelog.