Software composition analysis tools: AI search visibility ranking (2026)
How AI search engines rank software composition analysis tools by visibility and citations. 20 brands measured monthly across Google AI Mode: which brands the AI names in answers, which domains it cites as sources, and how the leaders compare. Application security tools used to inventory open-source dependencies, detect vulnerabilities, and manage software supply chain risk. Composite score: 70% visibility (% of AI answers naming the brand) + 30% citation rate (% citing the brand's domain). Full methodology →
Refreshed Jun 14, 2026Download this ranking as a PDF
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At a glance
What we observed in this categoryauto-generated
Endor Labs leads the Software composition analysis tools category with a composite score of 47.5, well above the next-ranked brand Mend at 30.0. The category average visibility sits at just 5.0%, making Endor Labs' 25.0% visibility and 100% citation rate a significant outlier. That gap matters because brands outside the top three score 11.2 or below, suggesting AI Mode is consolidating attention around a very small set of players rather than distributing it broadly across the 20 brands tracked.
Mend shows the sharpest divergence between visibility and citation in this dataset: it appears in 37.5% of responses (the highest raw visibility of any brand) but is cited in only 12.5% of them. Cycode presents the inverse pattern, with 0.0% visibility but a 37.5% citation rate, meaning the AI references Cycode as a source without surfacing it as a named recommendation. Snyk, despite strong market recognition, registers 12.5% visibility and 0.0% citations, indicating it is mentioned but not trusted as a source by the AI in this category.
Every brand in the top 10 by rank has Google AI Mode as its top engine, confirming this category's AI visibility is almost entirely concentrated in a single engine. The top cited sources list includes endorlabs.com, cycode.com, gartner.com, and securityboulevard.com, suggesting the AI is anchoring on a mix of vendor-owned content and third-party analyst or editorial sources. YouTube's presence in the cited sources list is notable and points to video content playing a role in how the AI constructs answers for this category.
Movers & shakers since last refresh
Biggest visibility risers
-
Mend 0% → 38% · rank #0 → #2+38pp
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Endor Labs 0% → 25% · rank #0 → #1+25pp
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Checkmarx 0% → 12% · rank #0 → #3+12pp
The ranking
| # | Brand | Visibility | Citation | Top engine |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
endorlabs.com
|
25% | 100% | Google AI Mode |
Endor Labs holds a 100% citation rate against a category average of 8.8%, giving it the strongest trust signal of any brand in the dataset by a wide margin. |
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| 2 |
mend.io
|
38% | 12% | Google AI Mode |
Mend leads all brands on raw visibility at 37.5% but converts just 12.5% of appearances into citations, revealing a significant gap between being mentioned and being sourced. |
||||
| 3 |
checkmarx.com
|
12% | 12% | Google AI Mode |
Checkmarx shows balanced but modest performance with visibility and citation both at 12.5%, placing it at the category average for citations but well above the 5.0% visibility average. |
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| 4 |
cycode.com
|
0% | 38% | Google AI Mode |
Cycode achieves a 37.5% citation rate despite 0.0% visibility, making it the clearest example of a brand the AI trusts as a source but does not actively surface in responses. |
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| 5 |
snyk.io
|
12% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
Snyk appears in 12.5% of responses but earns zero citations, a combination that results in a composite score of 8.8 and no presence in the top cited sources list. |
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| 6 |
ox.security
|
12% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 7 |
sonatype.com
|
0% | 12% | Google AI Mode |
| 8 |
blackduck.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 9 |
jfrog.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 10 |
veracode.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 11 |
github.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 12 |
gitlab.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 13 |
anchore.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 14 |
aquasec.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 15 |
fossa.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 16 |
dependencytrack.org
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 17 |
socket.dev
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 18 |
apiiro.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 19 |
spectralops.io
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 20 |
opentext.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
Sources AI engines trust in this category
Across the 8 buyer-intent queries we ran on software composition analysis tools, these are the domains Google AI Mode cited most often. If you're not on this list — or if your competitors are — that's a concrete PR / linkbuilding target.
How to read this ranking
Four things worth knowing before you act on the numbers above. These are the same definitions across every industry page — for category-specific observations, see the What we observed section above (where available) and the per-brand insights inline in the ranking.
Visibility = being named
A brand's visibility % is the share of AI answers that mention it by name in the response prose. This is who AI engines actively recommend to the buyer.
Citation rate = being trusted
Citation rate is the share of AI answers that include the brand's domain as a clickable source link. This is what the AI treats as authoritative evidence — different from being named.
Top engine differs by brand
The "top engine" column shows which AI surface each brand performs best on. Big gaps between a brand's score across engines usually points to specific content or schema gaps.
Rankings move month to month
AI engines re-crawl and re-rank on shorter cycles than classical search. We re-audit every brand on this list at least every 30 days and refresh this page automatically.
Get your own software composition analysis tools brand audited
The brands above were curated from public market-leader lists. Want the same measurement against your own brand — including the queries you appear on, which competitors get named instead, and a prioritised fix list? Run a free preview.
Frequently asked about software composition analysis tools AI visibility
Who leads AI visibility in Software composition analysis tools?
Endor Labs leads with a composite score of 47.5, driven by 25.0% visibility and a 100% citation rate. No other brand in the category comes close to matching its citation performance.
Which brand has the highest raw visibility in this category?
Mend has the highest raw visibility at 37.5%, but it converts only 12.5% of those appearances into citations, giving it a lower composite score than Endor Labs.
What sources does AI cite most for Software composition analysis tools research?
The top cited sources include endorlabs.com, cycode.com, gartner.com, securityboulevard.com, and youtube.com, indicating a mix of vendor content, analyst coverage, and video material.
Are there brands the AI cites but does not visibly recommend in this category?
Yes, Cycode has a 37.5% citation rate but 0.0% visibility, meaning it functions as a background source for the AI without appearing as a named recommendation in responses.
Which well-known SCA brands have no AI visibility or citations in this dataset?
Black Duck, JFrog Xray, and Veracode all score 0.0% on both visibility and citations, giving them a composite score of 0.0 despite broad market recognition.
Which engine drives AI visibility across this entire category?
Google AI Mode is the top engine for every brand ranked in the top 10, confirming that AI visibility in Software composition analysis tools is concentrated almost entirely in a single engine.