Used For

• +**Your containers keep failing security scans right before go-live** → Snyk catches vulnerable base images and tells you exactly which layer to fix
• +**That npm package you installed 6 months ago just got a critical CVE** → Auto-alerts with the exact version to upgrade to, no more surprise security fires
• +**Your Kubernetes configs are a security mess but nobody knows what's actually dangerous** → Scans Infrastructure as Code and prioritizes what'll actually get you hacked vs what's just noise
• +AI-powered risk scoring - focuses on the 3 critical issues instead of overwhelming you with 847 low-priority warnings
• +Integrates directly into VS Code and GitHub - catches problems as you code instead of 3 weeks later

Best For

• >Your open-source dependencies are a security nightmare and compliance is breathing down your neck
• >Hit enterprise scale and manual security checks are bottlenecking every deployment
• >Got burned by Log4j or similar and need to catch the next one before it hits production

Not For

• -Solo developers or tiny teams — you'll hit the 200 test/month limit in days and the paid plans are overkill
• -Teams that don't use much open-source — Snyk shines on dependency scanning, less useful for custom code
• -Companies wanting self-hosted security tools — it's cloud-only SaaS, no on-premise option

Pairs With

• *Jenkins (where the actual CI/CD magic happens and Snyk blocks deployments with critical vulnerabilities)
• *GitHub (for pull request checks that reject code with security holes before merge)
• *VS Code (where developers get real-time vulnerability alerts as they're writing code)
• *Kubernetes (to scan cluster configs and container images before they hit production)
• *Slack (where your team gets pinged about new critical vulnerabilities at 2am)
• *Jira (where security issues get tracked because someone has to fix them eventually)

The Catch

• !The free tier's 200 tests/month disappears fast with multiple repos — you'll be paying $25+ per user before you know it
• !Generates plenty of false positives that need manual review, adding 30-60 minutes of triage per week per developer
• !Enterprise pricing can hit $100+ per user monthly once you add all the features you actually need

Bottom Line

Catches security holes in your dependencies so you don't get hacked by some random npm package from 2018.