Black Duck (formerly part of Synopsys) is an enterprise SCA platform best known for deep binary and code-snippet scanning and a mature license-compliance workflow. If you want a quick, anonymous dependency check rather than a full enterprise governance rollout, DepWarden is a free alternative. Here's an honest comparison.
DepWarden needs no account and no sales call — paste a manifest or scan a public repo and get results immediately. It never sees your source or compiled artifacts, only the dependency manifest text. Exploitability ranking (KEV + EPSS + fix availability) is free, not gated behind an enterprise contract. Typosquat detection and OpenSSF Scorecard health ship on every scan by default, no add-on module — and it's fast to try, from lockfile paste to prioritised findings in seconds.
To be fair: Black Duck can identify open-source code from binary artifacts and copy-pasted code snippets, not just a manifest — a real capability for detecting undeclared open source that never appears in any lockfile. Its license-compliance knowledgebase and multi-team governance workflows (custom approval policies, audit trails across large organisations) are also more mature than what a self-serve free tool offers. If you need binary-level detection or enterprise-wide policy governance, Black Duck is built for that; DepWarden deliberately isn't.
Paste a package-lock.json or pom.xml and see prioritised findings in seconds, no account required. More: software composition analysis, free vulnerability scanner, DepWarden vs Snyk, DepWarden vs Mend, or the longer write-up: free Black Duck alternative.