CloneWorks vs Hound
CloneWorks
github.comHound
github.comSide by side
| Figure | CloneWorks | Hound |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | — |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | — | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | — | Yes |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 0 |
| Spec score · Code Clone Detection Tools | 7.9 (#4) | 7.5 (#13) |
| Purpose | CloneWorks prepares source code and detects code clones in the prepared fragments. | Hound is an extremely fast source code search engine with a React frontend and Go backend that maintains an index for each repository. |
| Support | Jeffrey Svajlenko invites questions and bug reports by email and says he is happy to assist with using CloneWorks. | The README describes platform support and setup guidance but does not specify a support service. |
Plans
In their own words
CloneWorks
CloneWorks prepares source code into fragments and detects code clones in those fragments. It supports Linux, macOS, and Windows, with a token-based detection method and repository-level scan scope. Its input builder supports Java, C, C++, C#, and Python, and can extract blocks, functions, or files. The detector accepts a minimum similarity threshold from 0.0 to 1.0; the repository describes a Type-3 clone-detection test run. When an index exceeds available memory, a partitioned partial-index mode is available, though the README says its partition size must be determined experimentally. CloneWorks requires FreeTXL 10.6 or later, gcc, make, and Java 7 or later. The input builder runs more slowly on Cygwin because process creation is slower on Windows. It is free to use, with acknowledgement required; copies, modifications, and derivatives must remain under the license and be distributed without charge. The license also provides the software as-is without warranty.
Hound
Hound is a free source code search engine that indexes repositories and offers a web interface and a minimal API. Its Go backend maintains a current index for each repository, while its static React frontend provides the web UI. Search uses regular-expression matching with a trigram index. Hound supports Git, Mercurial, SVN, Bazaar, and local repositories; private repositories can be indexed from local directories or reached through file or SSH-style URLs. By default, it checks configured repository URLs for updates every 30 seconds, with an interval that can be changed per repository. It can be built from source or run from the project's Docker image, and the web UI defaults to localhost:6080. Plugins are available for Sublime Text, Vim, Emacs, and Visual Studio Code. Hound is tested on macOS and CentOS and is expected to work on Unix-like systems, but Windows is not supported. It does not support TLS itself; the README suggests running it behind Apache or nginx. Hound uses the MIT license, and the latest listed release is v0.7.1, published May 3, 2023.