This review paper is concerned with the stability analysis of the continuity equation in the DiPerna-Lions setting in which the advecting velocity field is Sobolev regular. Quantitative estimates for the equation were derived only recently [38], but optimality was not discussed. In this paper, we revisit the results from [38], compare the new estimates with previously known estimates for Lagrangian flows, e.g. [11], and finally demonstrate how those can be applied to produce optimal bounds in applications from physics, engineering or numerics.