Anchore Secure vs Checkmarx Container Security: Side-by-Side Comparison (2026)

Anchore Secure

Mid-market and enterprise teams with strict vulnerability governance will get the most from Anchore Secure, specifically its ability to track historical vulnerability exposure without forcing rescans of every image each time a new CVE drops. The SBOM generation through Syft and policy-based compliance checks directly address NIST ID.RA risk assessment requirements. Skip this if your team needs runtime threat detection; Anchore is a scanning and inventory tool, not a behavioral enforcement platform.

Checkmarx Container Security

Teams shipping containers through fast-moving CI/CD pipelines need Checkmarx Container Security because it catches exploitable vulnerabilities by correlating image scans with runtime behavior, not just flagging every CVE that exists. The Docker Extension integration means scanning happens where developers actually work, and the layer-level visibility lets you pinpoint exactly which base image caused the problem. Skip this if you need runtime security without the image scanning component; Checkmarx assumes you're managing both sides of the container lifecycle.