Astrée vs Infer
Astrée
absint.comInfer
fbinfer.comSide by side
| Figure | Astrée | Infer |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | Free |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | — | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 0 | 1 |
| Spec score · C and C++ Static Analysis Tools | 7.8 (#11) | 8.5 (#5) |
| Integrations | The maker describes CI/CD and DevOps integration, automatic AUTOSAR integration analysis from ARXML files, and a TargetLink coupling; release notes also mention an Astrée Jenkins plugin. | Infer documents integrations for Buck, cmake, Gradle, Make, Maven, Xcodebuild, xctool, and compilation databases. |
| License | Astrée is developed and distributed by AbsInt under license from CNRS/ENS. | The Infer repository states that Infer is MIT-licensed, while noting that enabling Java support may require GPL-licensed components. |
| Purpose | Astrée is a sound static analyzer designed to prove the absence of runtime errors and data races in C/C++ programs. | Infer is a static analysis tool that produces a list of potential bugs from Java or C/C++/Objective-C code. |
| Support | The maker's factsheet invites users to speak with a product specialist by phone and lists [email protected] as a contact email. | The project directs users to GitHub issues and the #infer IRC channel on Libera Chat for questions and issue reports. |
| Supported systems | The product factsheet lists x86-64 Windows 10 or newer and x86-64 RHEL 9 or compatible as system requirements. | The latest release is described as a binary release for Linux and macOS, while the support FAQ says Infer is not supported on Windows. |
Plans
In their own words
Infer
Infer is a static analysis tool that examines compiled Java, C, C++, Objective-C, and Erlang code and reports potential bugs before release. Its checks include null pointer problems, resource or memory leaks, coding conventions, unavailable APIs, and concurrency issues such as data races. Some analyses can follow an issue across multiple functions or methods and files. Pulse provides memory-safety analysis, while RacerD checks thread safety. Cost analysis estimates asymptotic function complexity for Java and C-family languages; Hack support is experimental, and Python, Rust, and Swift are not supported by that analysis. Infer captures compilation commands, analyzes the captured files, and writes reports that can be reviewed with `infer explore`; files that are not compiled are not analyzed. Integrations are documented for build tools including Buck, CMake, Gradle, Make, Maven, Xcodebuild, and xctool. It can be installed from binary releases, built from source, or run in Docker. The free plan costs nothing. Infer runs on Linux and macOS, with web and self-hosted options; Windows is not supported.