| Pitfall | Consequence | |---------|--------------| | Using Developer Edition without license (e.g., trial expired) | Analysis fails after 14 days; downgrade to Community required | | Counting only “active” lines of code (excluding old projects) | Under-licensing → audit risk, true-up fees | | Shared license across multiple production instances | License violation (each instance needs license or special agreement) | | Running Data Center features (HA) on a single node | License terms violated (you paid for HA but didn’t deploy it – less risky, but still breach) | | Using Enterprise/DC edition for a simple CI/CD pipeline only | Paying unnecessarily – Developer Edition might suffice |
Before renewing or purchasing, audit your and ensure your pipeline actually utilizes the features (like Branch Analysis) you are paying for. sonarqube licenses
| Feature | Developer Edition | Enterprise Edition | Data Center Edition | |--------|------------------|--------------------|----------------------| | | Small to mid teams | Large orgs, compliance | Global, high availability | | Branch & PR analysis | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | | Security hotspots | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | | Security reports (CWE, OWASP, PCI) | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | | Portfolios / projects hierarchy | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | | High availability (active-active) | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | | Saml / OAuth / SCIM | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | | SonarCloud integration | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | | DevOps platform auth (GitLab, Bitbucket) | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | | License cost (approx starter) | ~$15k/year | ~$50k/year | ~$90k/year | | Pitfall | Consequence | |---------|--------------| | Using
SonarQube operates under a dual-licensing model. This can be confusing for engineering managers and DevOps teams trying to decide between the free Community Edition and the paid Commercial Editions. compliance | Global
