licscan vs ScanCode.io

licscan is a free command-line tool for checking project dependencies for license risk and producing software bills of materials and EU CRA evidence. It supports Go, Node.js, PHP, Python, Ruby, Rust, and Java projects. Its configurable five-level risk model can deny, warn about, or allow licenses, with exceptions. Output formats include table, JSON, HTML, Markdown, CycloneDX, SPDX, CRA PDF, SARIF, and JUnit. CRA mode creates a PDF and an extended CycloneDX JSON SBOM containing manufacturer and product metadata. LicScan runs locally without an account, telemetry, backend connection, or phone-home behavior; the maker describes scans as deterministic for the same inputs. Its official GitHub Action can post verdicts on pull requests, fail builds for denied licenses, and upload SBOM artifacts. SARIF and JUnit outputs support other CI workflows. It runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows, with installation options including Homebrew, curl, and go install. The free open-source plan is listed at free, with $0 per scan and an Apache 2.0 license.

ScanCode.io provides a web interface and API for running software composition analysis scans in scripted pipelines. It scans containers, Docker images, package archives, and manifests for license, copyright, source, and vulnerability information, and can generate or consume CycloneDX and SPDX SBOMs. The same capabilities are available through its command-line interface and REST API. Documented pipeline integrations include GitHub Actions, Jenkins, GitLab, and Azure Pipelines; other CI/CD systems that support Docker can run it too. It can fetch packages using Package URLs and retrieve artifacts from JFrog Artifactory and Sonatype Nexus. Installation is preferably through Docker, including for Windows; Linux server installation is also supported, and an offline Docker package can be transferred to an isolated server. The software is open source under Apache License 2.0 and is free. Authentication for the web interface and API is disabled by default, but can be enabled. Its default setup starts one worker, so it runs one pipeline at a time.