Kover vs ReportGenerator

Kover is a free, Apache-2.0-licensed toolkit maintained by Kotlin for measuring test coverage in Kotlin and Java code compiled for JVM and Android targets. It provides Gradle and Maven plugins, a command-line interface, offline instrumentation, a JVM agent, and a features artifact. The Gradle plugin creates HTML and XML reports, supports IC output, and can enforce coverage gates using line, instruction, and branch measurements. It integrates with Kotlin JVM, Kotlin Android, Kotlin Multiplatform, and the com.android.kotlin.multiplatform.library plugins, including mixed Kotlin and Java sources. JaCoCo can replace Kover for measurement and report generation. Android build variants and Android host tests are supported, but instrumented tests on devices are not collected. JavaScript and native targets are outside the Gradle plugin’s support. Requirements include Gradle 6.8.3 or later, JVM 1.7 or later for tests, and Android Gradle Plugin 7.0.0 or later. Class instrumentation during JVM test loading may affect performance or concurrent tests.

ReportGenerator is a command-line tool that turns code coverage reports into readable reports and visualizes covered source lines. It runs on Windows, Linux, and macOS, and accepts input from tools and formats including coverlet, OpenCover, dotCover, Visual Studio, NCover, Cobertura, JaCoCo, Clover, gcov, and lcov. Reports visualize line and branch coverage; method coverage is a PRO feature. A history chart tracks coverage over time, and the summary table can be filtered and sorted. Risk hotspot analysis can use cyclomatic complexity, NPath complexity, and CRAP score when those values are available, with configurable warning thresholds. Output choices include HTML, Clover, Cobertura, OpenCover, SonarQube, lcov, TeamCity summary, XML, Markdown, JSON, CSV, and text. The maker says GitHub Actions and Azure DevOps are supported. The project is open source under the Apache License, with basic features free and additional features requiring PRO. Lifetime licenses cost $79 as a one-time purchase for an individual, $249, paid once for up to 10 developers, or $599, paid once for unlimited developers.