Best Code Review Tools Shortlist
Here’s the shortlist of the best tools I’ll cover in this article.
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With the velocity of software development in the modern digital age, code reviews have become an essential part of the process. The best code review tools help maintain the integrity of software products with top-notch code quality while helping organizations ship code faster.
This enables organizations to maintain a tight and coherent pull request process while simultaneously efficiently handling the burden of technical debt.
In this article, I've tested and reviewed the best code review tools on the market today. Keep reading to find tool summaries, screenshots, pricing information, and pros and cons.
What are Code Review Tools?
Code review tools are a type of software application that helps developers to analyze and review the code for any type of project. They help to identify flaws and errors, measure quality and compliance levels, improve coding standards, and reduce the time needed for manual reviews.
These tools are becoming increasingly popular as their features enable developers to easily identify potential problems before they become costly in terms of time, money, or reputation. Code review tools provide enhanced visibility into code development cycles and allow teams to efficiently detect potential security risks, performance issues, incorrect logic flows, and syntax errors.
They can also enforce coding standards with integrated validation rules, which ensure that all code meets certain predefined criteria before it is deployed. Ultimately, these tools assist in creating more reliable systems by promoting collaboration between developers who can share feedback on the overall design process.
How I Selected the Best Code Review Tools
Perhaps you're wondering how I selected the best code review tools for this list. To build this top 10 list, I evaluated and compared a wide range of code review tools with positive user ratings.
After determining my long list of top choices, I further honed my list by using the selection criteria below to see how each platform stacked up against the next one. I also drew on my years of QA experience to pinpoint the features that add a lot of value.
If you have general questions about code review tools or how to pick the best code review tool for your organization, take a look at our frequently asked questions section below. Or, you can skip directly to my detailed software summaries if that's what you need the most.
Selection Criteria
Here’s a short summary of the main selection and evaluation criteria I used to develop my list of the best code review tools for this article:
Communication/Collaboration:
I looked for tools that made the pull request process more collaborative with comprehensive peer reviews. automated the process, creating a code review once a pull request is initiated. The best tools also generate
Bug/Defect Log:
Code reviews revolve around detecting and fixing bug defects in a codebase. As a result, a code review tool must be capable of robust log management and bug issue tracking to be effective.
Requirements Management:
Code reviews inevitably trigger changes. Code review tools need effective requirement management features to provide a coherent means of handling change by tracking and communicating changes to stakeholders.
Software Integrations:
Since code review is an essential part of the CI/CD, the tool must provide seamless integrations into CI/CD workflows.
Pricing:
The price tag of a tool determines its affordability, so this was obviously an important consideration, especially with regard to a code review product delivering value well above its price point.
Overviews of the 10 Best Code Review Tools
Here’s a brief description of each code review tool to showcase each one's best use case, noteworthy features, screenshots, and pricing information.
GitHub
Best code repository tool with code review capabilities
GitHub is an open-source code repository tool with in-built lightweight code review features. It is popular among developers, DevOps engineers, QA testers, and professionals who deal with software development.
GitHub’s pull requests have built-in features so that changes pushed to the branch are discussed and reviewed with collaborators before they are committed and merged to the repository.
Why I picked GitHub: GitHub is an indispensable tool for anyone who builds modern software, especially with the continuous integration and continuous deployment (CD/CI) pipeline tools of your choice. Its code review features revolve around pull requests.
The pull request reviews provide the opportunity to ensure the proposed changes made by a developer align with the repository’s contributing guidelines. In addition to being a global platform to contribute to code, it’s also an invaluable platform to discover and share software.
GitHub Standout Features & Integrations
Features include automated workflows, diffs for update tracking, create and review pull requests, timeline interface, history commits, comments, integration with CI/CD tools, and permissions through repository settings.
Integrations include Microsoft Teams, Slack, CircleCI, CodeFactor, DeepSource, Azure Pipelines, GuardRails, FlowUI, Jira, Codetree, Codacy, and others.
Pros
- The most comprehensive developer platform in the world.
- Provides quick search to find open source projects.
- Tracks code easily as it moves through the CI/CD pipeline.
- Simple, user-friendly UI
Cons
- GitHub doesn’t come with its own CI/CD tools, so you’ll have to integrate the tools you want yourself.
- The terms and terminology for technical processes, especially for creating and managing pull requests, can be confusing for beginners to grasp.
Bitbucket
Best one-stop place for conception, code, review, & deployment
Bitbucket is a code hosting and collaboration tool from Atlassian. It is built to facilitate software development with a DevOps team through its seamless integration with other Atlassian tools like Jira and Tello.
Since Bitbucket Cloud is deployed on Atlassian servers, it alleviates organizations' need to host an on-prem server. Using its enabled URL, along with extensive, persistent integration tools, teams can instantly develop, test, and deploy on Bitbucket. Hence, users can register on an official web browser to create their own accounts.
Why I picked Bitbucket: Bitbucket displays depth and versatility as a central place for professionals to work, collaborate, and manage git repositories. It provides APIs that enable DevOps to configure their workflow, create a merge checklist with approvers, and check for past builds. It provides a robust mechanism for source code management that is flexible and adaptable as a deployment model for development teams.
Bitbucket Standout Features & Integrations
Features include Code review, code collaboration, automated webhook developmenta, automated pipeline build process, and control repositories.
Integrations include Jira and Atlassian Open DevOps. Others include Jenkins and Bamboo.
Pros
- Unlimited private repositories are provided for free users.
- It allows various operating systems on the platform, like Windows, Mac, and Android.
- Bitbucket provides Git large file storage capacity and services, including add-ons
Cons
- Limited integrations available
Codacy
Best for automating code quality
Codacy allows DevOps teams to automate their code reviews easily. It allows organizations to create and execute a well-defined code review process.
Why I picked Codacy: Codacy helps you deploy quality code while saving precious time in code review. It monitors code quality on each pull request or commits. Codacy ensures the code produced by an organization is standard across multiple teams and projects. It also
Codacy Standout Features & Integrations
Features include improving code quality, code coverage tracking, customize rulesets, and code standardization.
Integrations include GitHub, Bitbucket, Slack, and Jira. Plus, webhook notifications enable Codacy to integrate with a service by sending a POST message to a custom address after analyzing each commit belonging to an active branch. You can set up multiple webhook notifications per repository.
Pros
- Easy integration into CI/CD workflows such as GitHub and GitLab.
- The ability to spot duplication and poor code metric areas.
Cons
- Customizing the code analysis setting could be challenging and complex for beginners.
RhodeCode
Best unified code review tool
Rhodecode is an enterprise-level code review platform, especially for behind-the-firewall source code management tools like Git, Mercurial, and Subversion. Apart from its SVN to Git migration, Rhodecode has in-built security features like permission management for secure software development.
Why I Picked Rhodecode: One of Rhodecode's superpowers is providing centralized control over distributed repositories. This enhances user control while providing a unified security framework that gives CTOs better peace of mind. Rhodecode provides faster time to deliver code value with its collaborative environment that fosters best practices across an organization’s codebase.
Rhodecode Standout Features & Integrations
Features include Unified repository management, team collaboration, top-notch security, and workflow automation.
Integrations include TeamCity, Git, Jira, Jenkins, Bamboo, Mercurial, Slack, Subversion, Redmine, and many more tools.
Pros
- Enables teams to produce and deliver code reviews and top quality code changes faster.
- Intuitive remote repository synchronization and replication.
- Provides easy access management with repositories.
Cons
- Some aspects of its UI and interface aren’t user-friendly
Collaborator
Best peer-based code review & collaboration tool
Collaborator is a cloud-based code review software developed by SmartBear Software. What makes Collaborator unique is that it is specifically designed for peer-review collaboration. It provides custom templates, workflow configurations, checklists, and other features that allow QA teams to build peer-review frameworks.
Why I picked Collaborator: Collaborator provides much more than soft code review. It allows teams to interact effectively while reviewing requirements, design documents, test plans, user stories, and all documentation in one place.
Collaborator allows IT and cross-functional teams to collaborate by scrutinizing changes between versions together and engaging in creative discussion while also subsequently allowing them to mark defects and categorize them effectively. Collaborator is an enterprise-grade tool used by various industries to ensure that changes to models or code repositories have been reviewed and signed off by the relevant stakeholders.
Collaborator Standout Features & Integrations
Features include iultiple code review templates, Effectively track and manage defects, Build custom review templates, and Report Generation.
Integrations include Jira, GitHub, GitLab, Eclipse, Bitbucket, SimuLink, Visual Studio, and many more.
Pros
- Self-explanatory administrative panel that makes it easy to perform code reviews.
- Provides single source of truth for meeting document regulatory compliance.
- Allows disparate teams to collaborate more effectively.
Cons
- The pricing is a bit high compared to other tools.
- Its reporting features are not easy to customize and underwhelming.
Phabricator
Best project management code review tool
Phabricator is an open-source web-based, lightweight code review tool. It uses an asynchronous process similar to how pull requests work in GitHub. Phabricator is a code review tool that supports two approaches in its review workflow: a pre-push “review” and a post-push “audit,” occurring in its Differential and Diffusion modes, respectively.
Why I picked Phabricator: Phabricator possesses innovative features to assist teams in maintaining the integrity of their codebases. Keep track of changes to features or certain elements of the codebase by implementing a Herald rule. This automatically triggers a CC you on any code revisions (files affected, author, and so on), especially from those who aren’t fully trusted to implement such changes, perhaps from an intern not trusted because of their coding skills.
With its enhanced audit and review process, Phabricator is ideal for organizations that want a code review tool built with checks and balances fostered by rule-based.
Phabricator Standout Features & Integrations
Features include Implement agile code review process, Audit source code, Enhanced workflow for Code review, and Project and Ticket management capabilities.
Integrations include Sourcegraph, GitHub, Coda, HackerOne, TimeDoctor, etc.
Pros
- It provides much contextual information to understand a bug and fix a problem.
- Phabricator provides authors with an incentive to fix problems and respond to review feedback.
- The tool makes it easy to quickly move from setup to creating projects and tasks.
Cons
- It is no longer actively maintained.
- Lacks an active community for support.
- It has an underwhelming interface.
Veracode
Most comprehensive appsec & code review tool
Veracode is a SaaS application security and testing platform that enables companies to deliver software code on time. In addition to code review capabilities, Veracode provides static code analysis, penetration testing, dynamic analysis, dynamic application testing, and more.
Why I Picked Veracode: While it provides a comprehensive suite of DevSecOps applications, Veracode's major use case for code review is its Software Composition Analysis (SCA), especially regarding open source and supply chain dependencies. The platform encourages development teams to prioritize and fix flaws fast.
Veracode Standout Features & Integrations
Features include application analysis, appsec governance, developer enablement, automated continuous testing, and mitigation management.
Integrations include Jenkins, Azure DevOps, Apache Ant, GitLab, Maven, and Bugzilla, including IDE environments like Eclipse, IntelliJIDEA, Microsoft Visual Studio, and so on.
Pros
- Integration with CI/CD pipelines makes running scans in an automated way seamless.
- Provides developers with a frictionless development experience.
- Creates faster application delivery lifecycles.
Cons
- No on-premise option exists.
CodeScene
Best tool for high-performing hotspot analysis
CodeScene is a software intelligence tool that visualizes and maps hotspots in a codebase. It facilitates code review by pinpointing the specific lines of unhealthy code negatively impacting software delivery flow.
Why I Picked CodeScene: CodeScene enables organizations to understand where their code quality issues emanate from, allowing them to implement bug fixes and improvements and prioritize new features subsequently. With its hotspot analysis and technical debt management, CodeScene boosts remediation with quality precision, diminishing the prevalence of technical debt by providing immediate feedback.
CodeScene Standout Features & Integrations
Features include code health metrics, virtual code reviewer, code quality management, and knowledge metrics.
Integrations include Azure DevOps, GitHub, Bitbucket, GitLab, Gerrit, and other CI/CD tools.
Pros
- Use collective knowledge to simulate off-boarding scenarios.
- Its hotspot feature boosts the capacity for developers to refactor code.
- CodeScene supports over 25 programming languages.
Cons
- It requires a significant learning curve to master the fundamentals.
- The UX and interface can be confusing for beginners.
GitLab
Best comprehensive & collaborative code review platform
GitLab is an open-source, Git repository with a centralized DevOps supply chain that enables organizations to build software fast yet manage the process effectively. It also bills itself as a DevSecOps platform with its API security, Secrets detection, DAST, and more.
It strives to provide organizations with one interface and point of collaboration platform to deploy to any cloud platform. To help an organization to manage the velocity and speed of software development with adequate security.
Why I picked GitLab: GitLab provides teams with one comprehensive DevOps platform. It allows teams to collaborate effectively to shorten development cycle times, built for both technical and non-technical professionals.
It removes toolchain complexity by providing a single interface to manage everything from. This means you don’t have to juggle tools from disparate sources, enabling your team to focus on development and delivery.
In addition to supporting version control, GitLab provides a visual representation of a project as code moves through the pipeline, from merging, testing, and deployment. GitLab integrates code repositories with issue tracking, facilitating incident management with each developer code attached to the ticket.
GitLab Standout Features & Integrations
Features include code review, source code management, project management, dynamic reporting, tailor-made customizability, and security.
Integrations include various CD/CI services and productivity apps such as Jira, Slack, Campfire, Atlassian Bamboo CI, Asana, Bugzilla, Datadog, Confluence, Jenkins, and much more.
Pros
- Great community for collaboration
- Easy to use with clean UI to manage projects easily
Cons
- Difficult to set up for novice Linux administrators.
- Some users complain about difficulty upgrading or migrating to a new server.
SonarQube
Best Tool to Detect Bugs and Inspect Code For Quality
SonarQube is a tool that enables development teams to write clean code. It does this by constantly inspecting codebases and evaluating code for quality and security issues. SonarQube is unobtrusive and seamlessly integrates itself into the DevOps workflow.
Why I picked SonarQube: SonarQube is versatile, providing guidance to remedy code for up to 29 programming languages. This makes developers more efficient and productive while ensuring proper coding standards are followed.
SonarQube is for organizations and developers who care about the quality of their code and want to minimize the cost and time of fixing bugs after production deployment. It has evolved as an industry standard to maintain code quality.
SonarQube Standout Features
- Code inspection to detect and analyze bugs to improve the quality of codebases.
- Performing automatic static code reviews to reduce duplication and redundancy. SonarQube uses its static code analysis algorithm to uncover potential issues in code.
- A wide-ranging rule set encompassing security vulnerabilities, coding best practices, and coding standards while highlighting performance pitfalls.
- Enterprise-level reporting for code coverage and code complexity, among others. SonarQube provides executive aggregation with security reports so companies can evaluate risk assessments.
- SonarQube easily integrates into DevOps workflow to provide timely feedback.
SonarQube Integrations
SonarQube can be integrated with many CI/CD and DevOps tools, such as Azure DevOps, Jenkins, GitHub, Jira, IntelliJ, BitBucket, etc.
Pricing: SonarQube provides two pricing models: SaaS and self-managed version.
Regarding the self-managed option, you can choose three plans: Developer (from $150), Enterprise (from $20,000), and Data Center (from $130,000).
Free trial: SonarQube offers a free-trial license.
Pros
- Serves up to 29 programming languages
- Identifying and fixing dead code
- Easy to navigate, which makes finding defects in code a breeze.
The 10 Best Code Review Tools Summary
| Tool | Free Option | Price | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GitHub Best code repository tool with code review capabilities | Free plan available | $4/user/month | Visit Website |
| 2 | Bitbucket Best one-stop place for conception, code, review, & deployment | Free plan (5 users) | From $3/user/month | Visit Website |
| 3 | Codacy Best for automating code quality | 14-day free trial | $15/month | Visit Website |
| 4 | RhodeCode Best unified code review tool | 30-day free trial | From $8/user/month | Visit Website |
| 5 |  Collaborator Best peer-based code review & collaboration tool | 30-day free trial | $665/year (5 packs, up to 25 users) | Visit Website |
| 6 |  Phabricator Best project management code review tool | Not available | Free | Visit Website |
| 7 |  Veracode Most comprehensive appsec & code review tool | Not available | Pricing upon request | Visit Website |
| 8 |  CodeScene Best tool for high-performing hotspot analysis | Not available | Pricing upon request | Visit Website |
| 9 |  GitLab Best comprehensive & collaborative code review platform | Free for individual users | From $19/user/month | Visit Website |
| 10 |  SonarQube Best Tool to Detect Bugs and Inspect Code For Quality | Not available | starts at $20,000/year | Visit Website |
Other Options
Here are a few more options that didn’t make the best code review tool list:
- Review Board
Best free, open-source, web-based document review tool
- Codestriker
Best notification code review system
- DeepSource
Deepsource is a static code analysis tool that helps you resolve critical bugs and ship better code faster.
- Codebeat
This open source team management tool enables you to monitor code in web and mobile apps through automated static code analysis.
- Codegrip
Codegrip enables QA teams to simplify the code review process through rule customizations and other streamlined steps.
- Axolo
Axolo facilitates merging code faster with pull requests that can be reviewed in Slack.
- JArchitect
JArchitect is a Java code review tool that provides dependency visualization and support for a large number of metrics.
- Embold
This AI-enabled code analyzer helps discover vulnerabilities and difficult to detect anti-patterns to foster technical debt in code.
- Peer Review for Trac
This plugin incorporates code review for developers into Trac.
- Visual Expert
This static analyzer for Oracle, PowerBuilder, and SQL Server helps teams detect flaws and vulnerabilities without breaking code dependencies.
- JetBrains Upsource
With its code-aware navigation, this advanced static code analysis tool makes it easy for teams to review code.
- Barkeep
Barkeep is billed as a “friendly code review system” that provides syntax-highlighted and colored diffs favored by engineering organizations.
- Helix Swarm
Helix Swarm is a free web-based tool that encourages teams to perform more code reviews through its streamlined process.
- Reshift
A continuous integration, SaaS-based code review tool that can be integrated into existing workflows to identify vulnerabilities
- Crucible
A collaborative code review tool with a structured workflow for Dev teams that want to execute quick reviews.
- Gitea
Gitea is a code collaboration and version control that is positioned as an alternative to GitHub, GitLab, and Bitbucket.
- CodeFactor.io
CodeFactor is a git automated code review tool that enables you to fix problematic files, track bug issues, commits, and pull requests.
- Snyk
This DevSecOps tool helps code reviewers mainly with a high level of security, especially with open source code dependencies.
- Gogs
This open source, self-hosted git service written in Go provides application version tracking with little overhead.
- JetBrains Space
Allows you and your team to easily perform, discuss, and keep track of code reviews.
People Also Ask
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Code reviews are both a technical yet creative part of the software development process that requires attention to detail. I hope this article has got you fired up to delve more into the intricacies of code reviews tools.
Also, sign up for our newsletter for the latest insights from top thinkers in the niche. Here are a few other tools review lists you might find useful:
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