Apache RAT vs ScanCode.io

Apache RAT is a free, open-source release-audit tool for checking software distributions, with particular attention to license headers. Version 0.18 provides a command-line client, an Ant task library, and a Maven plugin. You can include or exclude files using patterns, collections, pattern files, and file-size limits; apply approved-license lists; and produce plain, XML, missing-header, or unapproved-license reports. The Maven plugin can write target/rat.txt or add a report to a generated site. RAT can add Apache-2.0 headers and copyright notices to files allowed by configuration. XML license definitions are supported, and experienced users can extend matchers, formats, reports, and interfaces. It runs on Linux and is intended for self-hosted, on-premise use. Building requires Java 17, with Maven 3.9.13 or later recommended. Reports need interpretation and project-specific tuning, and heuristics can miss issues.

ScanCode.io provides a web interface and API for running software composition analysis scans in scripted pipelines. It scans containers, Docker images, package archives, and manifests for license, copyright, source, and vulnerability information, and can generate or consume CycloneDX and SPDX SBOMs. The same capabilities are available through its command-line interface and REST API. Documented pipeline integrations include GitHub Actions, Jenkins, GitLab, and Azure Pipelines; other CI/CD systems that support Docker can run it too. It can fetch packages using Package URLs and retrieve artifacts from JFrog Artifactory and Sonatype Nexus. Installation is preferably through Docker, including for Windows; Linux server installation is also supported, and an offline Docker package can be transferred to an isolated server. The software is open source under Apache License 2.0 and is free. Authentication for the web interface and API is disabled by default, but can be enabled. Its default setup starts one worker, so it runs one pipeline at a time.