Prettier vs Ruff

Prettier is an open-source code formatter that parses source files and prints them in a consistent style while accounting for line length. Its built-in languages include JavaScript, JSX, Angular, Vue, Flow, TypeScript, CSS, Less, SCSS, HTML, JSON, GraphQL, Markdown, YAML, LWC, and MJML. The command-line interface can write formatted files with --write or check formatting with --check in continuous integration. Listed editor integrations include VS Code, Emacs, Vim, Helix, Sublime Text, JetBrains IDEs, Visual Studio, and Espresso; formatting can run from a shortcut or on save. Prettier has configuration options but keeps them limited. Plugins can add languages and formatting rules, and languages outside the built-in set require a plugin. For ESLint integration, the installation guidance recommends eslint-config-prettier to disable rules that are unnecessary or may conflict. Prettier supports browser and JavaScript API use, along with Linux, macOS, and Windows. The listed plan is free. Commercial support and maintenance are available through the Tidelift Subscription.

Ruff is a Python linter and code formatter written in Rust, available free under a permissive open-source license. It includes more than 900 built-in lint rules, including native versions of popular Flake8 plugin rules, and can automatically correct violations such as unused imports. Its formatter aims to serve as a replacement for Black, though the documentation allows for differences in some cases. The built-in Ruff Language Server supplies diagnostics, fixes, and formatting; the documentation recommends pairing it with another Python language server for navigation and autocompletion. Setup guidance covers VS Code, Sublime Text, PyCharm, and Zed, while CI support includes GitHub Actions, GitLab CI/CD, and pre-commit hooks. Ruff can be installed through uv, pip, pipx, standalone installers, Homebrew, Conda, and other package managers. It supports configuration in pyproject.toml, ruff.toml, or .ruff.toml. A Bandit-derived rule group checks for common Python security issues. Ruff runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows, and is also published as a Docker image. The maker describes it as 10–100x faster than tools such as Flake8 and Black.