Flake8 vs PMD
Flake8
flake8.pycqa.orgPMD
pmd.github.ioSide by side
| Figure | Flake8 | PMD |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | Yes | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 2 | 1 |
| Spec score · Linters | 8.8 (#2) | 8.3 (#6) |
| Installation | The official quickstart installs Flake8 with python -m pip install flake8 and recommends invoking the interpreter-specific module when multiple Python versions are installed. | PMD requires Java 8 or above and is distributed as a ZIP archive containing PMD and CPD. |
| Purpose | Flake8 combines pycodestyle, pyflakes, McCabe, and third-party plugins to check Python code style and quality. | PMD is an extensible cross-language static code analyzer that finds common programming flaws. |
Plans
In their own words
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.