clang-tidy vs PMD
clang-tidy
clang.llvm.orgPMD
pmd.github.ioSide by side
| Figure | clang-tidy | PMD |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · Linters | 8.5 (#4) | 8.3 (#6) |
| IDE integrations | The documentation lists integrations including clangd, CLion, KDevelop, Qt Creator, Visual Studio tools, Vim plugins, and Emacs Flycheck. | The project lists integrations for Eclipse, IntelliJ IDEA, and Visual Studio Code, among other IDEs. |
| License | The LLVM project states that its code is licensed under the Apache 2.0 License with LLVM exceptions. | The project identifies its license as BSD-style. |
| Purpose | clang-tidy is a Clang-based C++ linter for diagnosing and fixing typical programming errors, including style violations, interface misuse, and bugs detectable by static analysis. | PMD is an extensible cross-language static code analyzer that finds common programming flaws. |
Plans
In their own words
clang-tidy
clang-tidy has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.
PMD
PMD is a free, extensible static code analyzer that checks source code for programming flaws such as unused variables, empty catch blocks, and unnecessary object creation. It includes more than 400 built-in rules, and teams can write custom rules in Java or XPath. Its bundled CPD tool finds duplicated code across many programming languages. PMD checks source directories from the command line and can run as a Maven, Ant, Gradle, or bld build operation. Supported languages include Java, JavaScript, Salesforce Apex and Visualforce, Kotlin, Swift, Modelica, PL/SQL, Apache Velocity, JSP, WSDL, Maven POM, HTML, XML, and XSL; Scala is supported without Scala rules. It runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows and requires Java 8 or above. For CI, its GitHub Action can create SARIF reports and fail builds based on violation counts; documentation also covers GitLab, Jenkins, and Bamboo integrations. IDE integrations include Eclipse, IntelliJ IDEA, and Visual Studio Code, though some listed plugins are not actively maintained. Only the latest major version is actively developed.