10 Best Static Code Analysis Tools Shortlist
Static code analysis tools are designed to automatically examine and improve the quality of source code, addressing several pain points for developers and organizations. One major challenge they tackle is identifying potential errors or security vulnerabilities early in the development process, which can otherwise lead to costly and time-consuming fixes post-deployment. These tools also enforce coding standards and best practices, ensuring consistency across large teams and projects.
A significant benefit of using these tools is the reduction in the time and resources spent on code reviews and debugging. According to a study by the Consortium for Information & Software Quality (CISQ)1, poor-quality software cost US organizations an estimated $2.08 trillion in 2020, underscoring the financial impact of software errors that static code analysis tools can help mitigate. By integrating these tools into the development workflow, teams can not only enhance code quality but also streamline their development processes, leading to more efficient and reliable software production.
With the overwhelming number of static code analysis tools available in the market, developers need help to choose the right tools. To make the selection process easy and help you make the right choice, I have listed the 10 best static code analysis tools. I’ll cover what each solution does best, key features, pricing information, and how static analysis tools work.
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What are static code analysis tools?
Static code analysis tools are software applications that help in scrutinizing and improving the quality of source code without actually executing the code. Think of them as automated reviewers that scan through your code to spot potential issues. Here's what they typically do:
- Error detection: They can identify programming errors, bugs, and stylistic errors before the code is run. This early detection is crucial in preventing issues in later stages of development.
- Code quality enforcement: These tools often enforce coding standards and best practices, ensuring consistency across the codebase. This is especially important in larger teams where multiple developers contribute to the same project.
- Security vulnerabilities: They scan the code for known security vulnerabilities, helping to safeguard the application against potential security breaches.
- Complexity analysis: By analyzing the complexity of the code, these tools can suggest ways to simplify or refactor code, making it more efficient and maintainable.
- Compliance checking: For industries with specific regulatory standards, static code analysis tools can ensure that the code complies with those standards.
By integrating static code analysis into the development workflow, developers can significantly reduce the time and effort required for manual code reviews, while also enhancing the overall quality and security of the software. These tools serve as an essential part of modern software development, helping teams to develop more reliable, efficient, and secure applications.
Overviews Of The 10 Best Static Code Analysis Tools
Here’s a brief description of each static code analysis tool that showcases each solution’s best use case, noteworthy features, and pros & cons. I’ve also included screenshots to give you a snapshot of the user interface.
Codacy
Best for getting visibility into the quality of your code
Codacy provides code analysis capabilities that empower developers to maintain code quality and save up to 60% in code reviews.
Why I picked Codacy: From startups to large enterprises, Codacy is used by thousands of companies and trusted by over 250,000 developers. The tool helps you get visibility into your code quality and provides insights for making informed decisions. In addition, it reveals your project’s actual health, technical debt, and areas of your code that need intervention.
Codacy is highly customizable, allowing you to tailor the code & security analysis process to your team's needs. The tool has high-security standards and offers the features you need to prevent critical issues from impacting your product’s quality. Its code standardization feature also allows you to standardize code quality across all teams and projects seamlessly.
Codacy Standout Features and Integrations
Features include customizable rulesets, high-security standards, code standardization, integrations, and complete visibility & reporting.
Integrations include Bitbucket, GitHub, GitLab, Jenkins, Jira, Slack, YouTrack, Zluri, and others.
Pros
- Highly customizable
- Built-in security features
- Improves developer velocity
Cons
- Customizing code analysis settings is complex at first
- Pricing is quite high
Checkmarx
Best for categorizing vulnerabilities based on level of severity
Checkmarx offers a static application security testing (SAST) solution that enables you to scan source code to find security issues and resolve vulnerabilities with expert guidance.
Why I picked Checkmarx: Trusted by leading brands, it provides the necessary tools you need to scan source code and resolve issues quickly. It supports many coding languages and dev frameworks. The tool allows you to integrate other dev tools, including popular IDEs, productivity tools, and source code management (SCM) solutions.
Checkmarx also helps you fix flaws fast. You can categorize issues based on their level of importance so you know which vulnerabilities need to be fixed first. And plugins make the tool extensible and customizable, enabling you to easily run scans and remediation processes according to your needs.
Checkmarx Standout Features and Integrations
Features include scalability, multiple programming languages and frameworks, integrations, and customizable queries.
Integrations include Bamboo, Bitbucket, Eclipse, Gradle, IntelliJ, Jenkins, TeamCity, Travis CI, Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code, and others.
Pros
- Flexibility
- It’s simple to use
- Fast resolution of issues
Cons
- Needs to be more scalable for large companies
- Needs to improve the false positives
Helix QAC
Best static code analyzer for C and C++ programming languages
Helix QAC helps developers ship high-quality code and meet rigorous compliance requirements with its static code analysis toolset. It enables developers to find, prioritize, and fix coding issues.
Why I picked Helix QAC: Over the years, Helix QAC has been a leading static code analyzer for C and C++ coding languages. It enables developers to comply with strict standards such as ISO 26262, MISRA, and AUTOSAR.
It lets you know where the problems are and provides actionable results to help you fix them. Helix QAC has a risk prioritization feature, which ranks vulnerabilities based on risk severity. This enables you to attend to the most important issues first.
The dashboard is centralized, accessible through a web browser, and designed to let you customize views and reports to suit your team’s needs. You can monitor code quality and compliance parameters from the analysis dashboard. And also keep tabs on developing trends with customizable reports.
Helix QAC Standout Features and Integrations
Features include customizable reports, an analysis dashboard, seamless integrations, and risk prioritization.
Integrations include ActiveState, Adobe, AWS, Jenkins, JetBrains, Jira, Microsoft, Slack, Unity, Unreal Engine, and others.
Pros
- Higher code quality
- Compliance with coding standards
- Faster releases
Cons
- It doesn’t support many programming languages
- No large community of users
ReSharper
Best static code analysis tool for Visual Studio user
ReSharpers, designed for .NET developers, helps users analyze code quality, get rid of errors, and improve code quality to comply with coding standards.
Why I picked ReSharper: It allows you to run on-the-fly code quality analysis in multiple languages, including C#, XAML, JavaScript, VB.NET, and TypeScript. ReSharper analyzes your code and notifies you if there is a problem. In addition, it automatically suggests hundreds of quick solutions or fixes to get rid of the issues.
It provides a variety of potential quick fixes, giving you the flexibility to choose the best solution. The tool has multiple code editing helpers, such as extended IntelliSense and auto-importing namespaces. ReSharper has a code style and formatting functionality, which helps you create clean code and comply with coding standards.
ReSharper Standout Features and Integrations
Features include code editing helpers, code styling and formatting, refactorings, navigation and search, compliance with coding standards, and code generation.
Integrations include .NET, ASP.NET, C#, CSS, IntelliJ IDEA, PhpStorm, Rider, TypeScript, Visual Studio Code, XAML, and others.
Pros
- Easy navigation
- Faster development
- Great code refactoring feature
Cons
- Pricing is on the high side
- Sometimes it shows errors that don’t exist
Kiuwan
Best for automatic code scanning and defects remediation
Kiuwan provides static analysis capabilities that help developers find and fix security issues in their code.
Why I picked Kiuwan: Trusted by developers across the globe, Kiuwan provides a comprehensive suite of static analysis tools designed to help you fix vulnerabilities and deliver great products. It enables you to find and resolve code issues quickly. In addition, Kiuwan supports up to 30 programming languages and allows you to integrate with all popular dev environments.
It offers actionable insights that let you understand your project’s state of health and helps you create a remediation plan to improve code quality. You can customize the setup according to your team’s needs and preferences. Kiuwan stands out for its ability to detect open-source components and automatically scan open-source code to find security issues.
Kiuwan Standout Features and Integrations
Features include rapid results, valuable insights, customizable setup, full coverage, and support for multiple languages & dev environments.
Integrations include Bitbucket, CircleCI, CloudBees Core, Explorer Eclipse, GitLab, Jira, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Visual Studio, Python, ThreadFix, and others.
Pros
- Clear and simple dashboard
- Efficient scanning and reporting
- Highly customizable
Cons
- Customizing configurations requires some deep tech knowledge
- Users complain of difficulty in assigning users and roles
Veracode Static Analysis
Best for finding and fixing vulnerabilities with real-time feedback
Veracode Static Analysis empowers developers to run end-to-end static scanning, find code issues, fix flaws speedily, and deliver high-quality applications.
Why I picked Veracode Static Analysis: This tool helps you identify and resolve code errors quickly. It offers real-time scanning, contextual guidance, and one-on-one support. Veracode is designed to scan more than 100 programming languages and development frameworks.
With the Veracode Static Analysis solution, you can decrease errors introduced in new code significantly with IDE scans. It allows integration with a wide range of developer tools and custom APIs. In addition, there are reporting and analytics features for managing and measuring your project’s security posture.
Veracode Static Analysis Standout Features and Integrations
Features include end-to-end static scanning, auto-tuning accuracy, risk prioritization, reporting and analytics, and scalable cloud architecture.
Integrations include AWS CodeStar, Azure DevOps, Bamboo, Bitbucket, Broadcom, Bugzilla, CircleCI, Codeship, Jira, Maven, and others.
Pros
- Quick responses to questions
- Improved developer experience
- High accuracy in scanning for vulnerabilities
Cons
- It can be complex to configure
- Sometimes the scans are not executed quickly
SonarQube
Best self-managed static analysis tool for continuous codebase monitoring
SonarQube, a leading enterprise code analyzer, allows software engineers to integrate into their enterprise environment and deliver clean code that complies with high-quality standards.
Why I picked SonarQube: It is a flexible and extensible tool you can use to customize workflows according to your team’s needs. SonarQube features enterprise-level security reporting capabilities, which provide the visibility needed to evaluate the risks associated with your projects and make informed decisions.
SonarQube supports over 30 languages, frameworks, and IaC solutions. It allows you to integrate with continuous integration/continuous deployment environments and provides the necessary features you need to fix code issues and implement coding best practices.
This software stands out with 5,000+ coding rules and ultra-fast taint analysis of C#, PHP, Python, TypeScript, JavaScript, and Java.
SonarQube Standout Features and Integrations
Features include support for 30+ languages, integrations with DevOps tools, high operability, super-fast analysis, unified configurations, and Sonarlint IDE integration.
Integrations include Appcircle, Bitbucket, CodeNow, Datadog, Deque, GitHub, GitLab, Microsoft Azure, Phoenix Security, Plandek, and others.
Pros
- Flexibility and governance
- Extensible and customizable
- Seamless integrations
Cons
- Logging of events needs improvement
- It generates false positives
AutoRABIT
Best static code analysis solution for Salesforce developers
AutoRABIT offers a static code analysis solution, CodeScan Shield, that empowers Salesforce developers to discover flaws, eliminate code errors, and enforce compliance with coding standards.
Why I picked AutoRABIT: Trusted by many developers, this platform features CodeScan Shield, which is a static analysis solution that provides visibility into your codebase. It scans the code repository and alerts you the moment an error is committed. CodeScan ensures your project is devoid of coding errors and compliant with standards.
It covers all Salesforce languages, provides high-level code analysis, and makes it easy for Salesforce developers to deliver high-quality code. CodeScan uses over 600 rules to identify flaws in code as soon as they happen. This speeds up code review and helps you save time.
AutoRABIT Standout Features and Integrations
Features include complete visibility into Salesforce Org code health, actionable insights, profiles and permissions settings, adherence to regulatory requirements, and 600+ rules for detecting coding errors.
Integrations include Bitbucket, Conga CPQ, GitLab, GitHub, Jenkins, Microsoft Azure, nCino, Salesforce Sales Cloud, Veeva CRM, and others.
Pros
- The onboarding process is fast and easy
- A fair pricing model
- Good insight into code quality
Cons
- It produces false positive results sometimes
- More documentation needed
Visual Expert
Best for identifying code dependencies and improving code quality
Visual Expert helps software engineers improve code quality and security by providing a suite of tools for exploring, analyzing, and documenting code.
Why I picked Visual Expert: It provides outstanding features for cross references, code documentation, detecting vulnerabilities, enhancing code quality, running code comparisons, and optimizing code performance. Visual Expert supports multiple programming languages and inspects code separately or all together.
With Visual Expert, you can run the static code analysis of more than one application simultaneously. It offers collaborative features that enable team members to share resources and work on projects together.
Visual Expert Standout Features and Integrations
Features include cross references, code comparison, documentation, multi-application analysis, support for multiple languages, and collaborative capabilities.
Integrations include Apache Subversion, Azure DevOps Server, Git, GitHub, GitLab, Jenkins, Oracle Database, PowerBuilder, SQL Server, Visual Studio, and others.
Pros
- Supports various programming languages
- Automatic code scanning
- Comprehensive documentation
Cons
- It’s expensive
- Not much help is available online
Klocwork
Best for accelerating time-to-market and delivering quality code
Klocwork is one of the best static code analyzers that supports multiple programming languages and enables software engineers to comply with standards by identifying software quality and security issues.
Why I picked Klocwork: It is designed to help DevOps and DevSecOps teams identify and fix potential code issues and speedily deliver high-quality products to the market. And Klockwork is highly extensible. It integrates with a wide range of tools and gives you the flexibility to customize your workflow.
It has collaboration capabilities, which increase development speed and enable team members to work together on projects. The platform also offers static application security testing (SAST). SAST helps with the early identification and resolution of security issues.
Klocwork Standout Features and Integrations
Features include SAST for DevOps, Project Streams, automation, collaboration, reporting, and customizability.
Integrations include ActiveState, Adobe, Backtrace, Bamboo, Jenkins, JetBrains, Jira, Slack, Unity, Unreal, and others.
Pros
- Supports multiple programming languages
- Easy to automate
- Highly customizable dashboard
Cons
- The user interface needs to be improved
- The process of creating custom checkers is lengthy
The 10 Best Static Code Analysis Tools Summary
| Tool | Trial Info | Price | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Codacy Best for getting visibility into the quality of your code | 14-day free trial | $15/month | Website |
| 2 |  Checkmarx Best for categorizing vulnerabilities based on level of severity | Free demo available | Pricing upon request | Website |
| 3 |  Helix QAC Best static code analyzer for C and C++ programming languages | Free trial available | Pricing upon request | Website |
| 4 |  ReSharper Best static code analysis tool for Visual Studio user | 30-day free trial | From $34.90/user/month | Website |
| 5 |  Kiuwan Best for automatic code scanning and defects remediation | 14-day free trial | Pricing upon request | Website |
| 6 |  Veracode Static Analysis Best for finding and fixing vulnerabilities with real-time feedback | Free demo available | Pricing upon request | Website |
| 7 |  SonarQube Best self-managed static analysis tool for continuous codebase monitoring | Not available | From $20,000/year | Website |
| 8 |  AutoRABIT Best static code analysis solution for Salesforce developers | Free demo available | Pricing upon request | Website |
| 9 |  Visual Expert Best for identifying code dependencies and improving code quality | Free trial available | From $495/user/year | Website |
| 10 |  Klocwork Best for accelerating time-to-market and delivering quality code | Free trial available | Pricing upon request | Website |
Other Options
Here are a few more worthwhile options that didn’t make the best static code analysis tools list:
- Codiga
Best for customizable static analysis that works in your IDE and CI/CD pipelines
- FusionReactor
Best for finding Java application errors and code & SQL performance issues
- Clang Static Analyzer
Best static code analysis tool for finding bugs in C, C++, and Objective-C programs
- Snyk
Best static code analysis tool for real-time scanning and debugging
- CodeSignal
Best static code analysis tool for talent acquisition, engineering leaders, and IO psychologists
- Checkstyle
Best static code analysis tool for automating Java source code analysis
- CodeScan
Best static code analysis tool for improving code quality and security for Salesforce developers and admins
- Coverity SAST
Best static code analysis tool for accelerating development and addressing code issues early in the software development lifecycle (SDLC)
- CodeFactor.io
Best static code analysis tool for automating code review for git
- Fortify on Demand
Best static code analysis tool for providing complete AppSec as a Service
How I Selected the Best Static Code Analysis Tools
Perhaps you're wondering how I selected the best static code analysis tools for this list. To build this top 10 list, I evaluated and compared a wide range of static code analysis 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 software testing experience to pinpoint the features that add a lot of value.
Core Functionality
Static code analysis tools are essential in modern software development, primarily focusing on improving code quality and efficiency. Their core functionalities include:
- Error and bug detection
- Security flaw identification
- Code quality improvement
- Code complexity analysis
- Compliance and standards enforcement
Key Features
To deliver the functionality I outline above, each of the static code analysis tools had to have at least a few of the following features:
- Automated code review: These tools automate the review process, systematically scanning the code for issues, which saves time and effort compared to manual code reviews.
- Integration with development environments: Many static analysis tools are designed to integrate seamlessly with popular Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) and Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) pipelines, making them a natural part of the development workflow.
- Customizable rules and standards: They often allow teams to customize and define their own set of rules and coding standards, tailored to specific project or organizational requirements.
- Reporting and documentation: Static code analysis tools generate detailed reports and documentation highlighting identified issues, their severity, and potential fixes, which is crucial for tracking and addressing code quality over time.
- Code metrics and statistics: They provide valuable metrics and statistical data about the code, such as code coverage, duplication, and adherence to best practices, offering insights into the overall health of the codebase.
- Real-time feedback: Many of these tools provide real-time feedback and suggestions as the code is being written, which helps in immediate rectification and learning.
- Language support: These tools typically support multiple programming languages, making them versatile for various types of software projects.
- Historical analysis and trending: They can track the history of code quality, showing trends and improvements over time, which is helpful for long-term project maintenance and management.
Programming Languages
I picked tools that support many programming languages. An average software development team uses multiple programming languages. The choice of language for a project depends on the type of product and what the client wants. As a result, the languages your team uses will keep changing based on project types.
So, you need a static code analysis tool that supports all popular coding languages. This removes the need to move from one static analysis tool to another as your team’s needs continue to change. Most of the tools on my list allow you to analyze code in almost all the common languages.
Coverage of Safety and Security Standards
Checking your code according to safety and security standards helps you build highly secure products and reduce the risk of building software with vulnerabilities. The more security or compliance standards a static analysis tool covers, the better. Some of these standards include OWASP, CWE, SEI CERT, MISRA, and AUTOSAR.
Using a tool that covers multiple rules and standards helps you to comply with coding standards across industries easily. My list features tools that cover important, popular standards so you won’t have difficulty finding a tool that covers some industry-specific standards you need to comply with.
Analysis Speed
It takes a static analyzer from several minutes to hours to scan a project and produce results. The speed of analysis depends on a range of factors, including the project size, server performance, and depth of analysis.
That said, some tools are designed to run code analysis with incredible speed. Using a tool with good analysis speed helps you save time, reduce the overall cost of code review, and deliver applications faster to the market.
Software Integrations
If your team has been creating products for a while, you have configured some development tools as an integral part of your software development life cycle. However, to streamline workflow and make development easier for your team members, you want to seamlessly integrate new tools into your current toolset.
I selected static analysis tools with a wide range of integrations. You can integrate each tool with your dev environments, productivity software, and other software development solutions. This helps you access various tools from one place and removes the need to jump from one tool to another while working.
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are answers to some frequently asked questions about static code analysis solutions.
What is static code analysis?
What can't be found using a static code analysis tool?
What other static code analysis resources do I need?
Improve Code Quality With the Best Static Code Analysis Tools
Discovering and fixing bugs early in the software development life cycle helps you avoid the high cost of repairing issues after your software has gone live. With the help of machine learning-powered automation, these tools enable you to spot flaws automatically, resolve issues quickly, and avoid fines by complying with coding standards.
Deliver beyond your customers’ expectations with the help of one or more of the tools listed above. And if you want to learn more about static analysis and quality assurance, sign up for our newsletter to get the latest insights from top thinkers in the QA industry.