git-secrets vs Perforce Klocwork: Side-by-Side Comparison (2026)
Features, pricing, ratings, and pros & cons — compared head-to-head.
git-secrets is a free static application security testing tool. Perforce Klocwork is a commercial static application security testing tool by Perforce Software. Compare features, ratings, integrations, and community reviews side by side to find the best static application security testing fit for your security stack.
CST VerdictBased on our analysis of NIST CSF 2.0 coverage, core features, integrations, company size fit, here is our conclusion:
Teams with developers committing to shared repositories should deploy git-secrets before anything else in their secrets management stack; it's the only free tool that actually stops credentials from hitting version control in the first place. With 12,952 GitHub stars and active adoption across tech companies, it's proven enough to catch the breach vectors that cost the most to remediate later. Skip this if your developers work in air-gapped environments or you need centralized policy enforcement across multiple repositories; git-secrets is a local hook, not a platform.
Development teams shipping C, C++, and Java at scale will get the most from Perforce Klocwork because its differential analysis mode catches regressions in changed code without slowing down the build pipeline. It supports MISRA C/C++ and AUTOSAR C++ 14 out of the box, which matters if you're embedded systems or automotive; most SAST tools treat safety standards as an afterthought. Skip this if your codebase is predominantly Python or JavaScript and you need deep data flow analysis for third-party dependencies, where Klocwork's strength in compiled languages becomes a liability.
