Veracode Named a “Difference Maker” in 2026 Lionfish Tech Advisors and FOURCASTERS Buyer’s Guide for Application Security Testing

• Independent analysts find that AI is making comprehensive application security testing more essential than ever, not less.

BURLINGTON, Mass. – October 7, 2026 – Veracode, the global leader in application risk management, today announced it has been named a ‘Difference Maker’ and positioned at the top of the vendor pyramid in the Buyer’s Guide 2026 for Application Security Testing, published by FOURCASTERS and Lionfish Tech Advisors.” Veracode is one of the few vendors in the report that delivers all seven components of a complete application security program.

“THE PYRAMID” for Application Security Testing is an independent analyst report that evaluates Application Security Testing (AST) vendors on their ability to deliver a complete program, not just a scanner. Lionfish Tech Advisors is a prominent mid-market advisory firm staffed entirely by former Gartner research directors and analysts. The firm provides validated market positioning and vendor shortlists built specifically for enterprise technology buyers and economic buyers like CIOs and CISOs.

“This distinction between providing individual testing capabilities and providing enough of the components needed to support an application security program is important throughout this research,” the report states.

A Complete Program, Not Just a Scanner

The report defines seven components every AST program needs: Static Application Security Testing (SAST), Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST), Software Composition Analysis (SCA), reporting and trending, secure code training, remediation assistance, and pentesting services. Vendors offering only one or two testing types, or those that substantially lack the completeness or scale needed to support an AST program, are excluded from the research.

The “Difference Maker” designation recognizes vendors with distinctive and unique market impact, and Veracode earned that recognition at the top of the 2026 vendor pyramid. The report notes that Veracode provides “Application Security Posture Management (ASPM) capabilities through acquisition, internal development, or both. The direction is toward a broader and more continuous function than the traditional combination of SAST, DAST, and SCA.”

Fig. 1: THE PYRAMID™ for Application Security Testing, Buyer’s Guide 2026 — FOURCASTERS & Lionfish Tech Advisors

AI Makes Testing More Essential, Not Less

The report takes a clear position that AI makes application security testing more essential than ever. “AI is helping programmers and organizations produce more code at higher velocity, but it still cannot reliably produce flaw-free code. Because of the volume, the need for AST scanning has only become more pressing,” the report states.

The report continues: “The larger change may be that AI moves AST from a periodic testing activity toward an always-on validation layer. AI-generated code can be created and changed continuously, and AI-driven remediation creates additional code changes that also then need to be validated.”

A Powerful Competitive Advantage

“This recognition is a powerful validation of what Veracode has built — a complete application security program that helps organizations prove their software can be trusted,” said Karen Buffo, Chief Marketing Officer at Veracode. “In a market where any single analyst’s view can shift from one cycle to the next, the strength of a complete, independently validated program speaks for itself. As AI accelerates code generation and the attack surface grows, the need for independent, comprehensive testing has never been greater. Being named a Difference Maker at the top of THE PYRAMID underscores our commitment to standing alongside Chief Information Officers and Chief Information Security Officers as they build security into every stage of the software development lifecycle.”

The full FOURCASTERS and Lionfish Tech Advisors Buyer’s Guide 2026 for Application Security Testing is available to download here. To explore why AI is making application security testing more essential than ever, read the related Veracode blog post: Why Application Security Testing Isn’t Disappearing.