If your team is trying to keep pull requests quiet, the real decision is not just "which scanner finds the most issues?" It is which workflow developers will keep on.

This page is for teams deciding between:

Aikido for a low-noise, developer-first platform that combines SAST with SCA, secrets, IaC, cloud posture, offensive testing, and runtime protection in one system
Semgrep for fast, customizable, developer-owned SAST
GitHub Advanced Security (GHAS) for GitHub-native code security and governance

Short answer

Choose Aikido when you want:

a quieter default experience in pull requests
one platform for code, cloud, secrets, and broader AppSec workflows
PR-based remediation and a simpler rollout for lean teams
a path that reduces tool sprawl instead of adding another point product

Aikido's AutoTriage runs reachability analysis first to filter findings before they reach the queue; per the SAST AutoTriage documentation this "detects roughly twice as many false positives on those complex cases compared to non-reasoning approaches."

Choose Semgrep when you want:

a standalone SAST layer that developers can tune directly
fast scans and readable rules
more custom rule ownership inside engineering

Choose GitHub Advanced Security when you want:

the most GitHub-native experience
CodeQL depth and GitHub governance in the same place
to standardize on GitHub security workflows across many repos

The practical decision rules

1) How much platform do you want?

Pick Aikido if you do not want to solve SAST in isolation.

Aikido is built as a broader platform covering:

SAST
SCA / dependency scanning
secrets detection
IaC scanning
cloud posture management
API / DAST style testing
runtime protection

If your problem is really "we need quieter SAST and fewer tools," Aikido is the cleaner fit.

Pick Semgrep or GHAS if you specifically want a SAST-first decision and already have the rest of your stack figured out.

2) Who owns the rules?

Pick Semgrep if engineering wants strong control over rule tuning and custom patterns.

Pick Aikido if you want more of the signal-quality and triage model to come from the platform rather than from ongoing rule ownership.

Pick GHAS if your center of gravity is GitHub governance and CodeQL-based security workflows.

3) What should happen in pull requests?

For most teams, the winning setup is simple:

show only new, relevant issues in PRs
keep legacy debt out of the critical path
make fixes or suppressions auditable
avoid comment spam

All three options can support PR workflows, but they optimize for different things:

Aikido: quieter, broader, more platform-oriented workflow
Semgrep: fast PR-native SAST with more tuning control
GHAS: deeper GitHub-native workflow, usually with more setup and governance weight

4) How Git

Hub-centric are you?

Pick GHAS when GitHub is not just your repo host but your security operating model.

Pick Aikido if you need to work across a broader stack or do not want the answer to stop at GitHub code scanning.

Pick Semgrep if you want SAST that stays portable and developer-owned.

What to test in a proof of concept

Do not decide on feature lists alone. Test these in real repos:

PR signal quality

How many findings show up on a normal PR?
How many are clearly worth fixing right now?
How many feel like legacy or low-context noise?

Rollout safety

Can you baseline existing issues cleanly?
Can you gate only on new high-confidence issues?
Can teams start in warn-only mode and tighten later?

Ownership

Can engineering leads handle most triage without creating a security queue?
Are suppressions and exceptions visible and auditable?
Does the tool map well to existing repo ownership?

Workflow fit

Do developers understand what the tool wants them to do?
Are findings easy to verify and fix?
Does scan latency stay acceptable in real PRs?

A simple buyer framing

Ask these questions in order:

Do we want one broader AppSec platform, or just a SAST tool?
Do we want developers to tune rules directly, or do we want a quieter managed default?
Is GitHub-native governance the main value, or is broader coverage more important?

If your answers are:

broader platform + quiet default + fewer tools -> start with Aikido
developer-owned SAST + custom rules -> start with Semgrep
GitHub-native governance + CodeQL depth -> start with GHAS

Aikido vs Semgrep vs GitHub Advanced Security: choosing a low-noise SAST path