Practical uses
- Scan code before each merge/CI/CD.
- Detect hardcoded secrets and credentials.
- Analyze dependenciesReachability (SCA).
Pros and cons
What Semgrep does especially well — and the limits to anticipate.
Pros
- Powerful free Community Edition (3,000+ rules).
- Free Team for ≤10 contributors (excellent value).
- AI-assisted triage sharply reduces false positives.
- Complete CI/CD integrations.
Cons
- Community: single-file analysis only (no cross-file dataflow).
- The Team plan gets expensive past a dozen contributors.
- Documentation less complete than paid solutions.
Semgrep: when it makes sense.
Semgrep fits teams seeking unified SAST + SCA; free Community Edition already powerful for startups/open-source.
Keep if
You want SAST + SCA + secrets in one platform.. Community Edition open-source already fits.
Challenge if
You have tight security tools budget.. You want simple SAST without SCA/secrets.