# Snyk

6 Hacker News commenters recommended Snyk and 13 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 5 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Scans repositories and containers for known vulnerabilities and exploits. Critics say it is slow to add new advisories and produces many false positives and misses.

## Why people recommend it

- Solves everyday security scanning needs (2 comments): "Certainly not an amazing idea, but it solves the problem of the day." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49156077)) "scan containers and repositories for known exploits" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46307032))
- Respected security company (2 comments): "if you're relying on them for security scanning, you should be able to trust them" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47777535)) "I do appreciate these security companies a lot" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48994387))

## What people warn about

- Slow to flag new vulnerabilities (4 comments): "So it seems that Snyk is taking almost a week to get advisories out for an RCE" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48176996)) "passed them clean because there was nothing in the database yet" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47284459)) "It seems that Snyk isn't picking this up on our docker images." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48148448))
- Many false positives and misses (3 comments): "existing tools like Snyk give so many false positives and miss so many actual vulnerabilities" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49782578)) "We use snyk at work and I have not been satisfied." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49090088)) "pattern-match syntax, not behaviour" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47005685))
- Urgent upgrade alerts disrupt work (2 comments): "Snyk routinely tells us that we need to upgrade urgently because they found a vulnerability in the Windows version of a package." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49155891)) "brought development to a standstill" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48375708))
- Expensive for indie developers (2 comments): "GitGuardian and Snyk charge $25-50/month which is expensive for indie developers." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46897821)) "Snyk and socket.dev take money for the pain and suffering" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47776851))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [OpenAI Codex Security](https://hackerapproved.com/p/codex-security.md): 21 recommend
- [govulncheck](https://hackerapproved.com/p/govulncheck.md): 13 recommend
- [Trivy](https://hackerapproved.com/p/trivy.md): 10 recommend
- [cargo-vet](https://hackerapproved.com/p/cargo-vet.md): 8 recommend
- [cargo-audit](https://hackerapproved.com/p/cargo-audit.md): 8 recommend

## Where to get it

- [Visit the official site](https://snyk.io/)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Snyk", https://hackerapproved.com/p/snyk/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).