Semantic Designs Source Code Search Engine vs Understand
Semantic Designs Source Code Search Engine
semanticdesigns.com
Understand
scitools.comSide by side
| Figure | Semantic Designs Source Code Search Engine | Understand |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | $100/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 2 | 2 |
| Spec score · Code Search Tools | 8.3 (#4) | 8.5 (#2) |
| Headquarters | Austin, Texas, USA | St. George, Utah, United States |
| Metrics | The engine calculates Cyclomatic and Halstead complexity and counts source, code, comment and blank lines per indexed file. | The product computes more than 270 metrics, including size, complexity, coupling and cohesion measures, with export and charting. |
| Support | The maker provides [email protected] for inquiries and says custom scanners can be built for unusual languages, dialects, or structured text. | SciTools provides product support by email and lists office hours Monday through Friday, 9 AM–5 PM Mountain Time. |
Plans
Semantic Designs Source Code Search Engine
- Evaluation versionFree
- Production licensePriced on request
Understand
- Understand subscription$100 a month
- Understand annual subscriptionPrice not published
In their own words
Semantic Designs Source Code Search Engine
Semantic Designs Source Code Search Engine searches and inspects indexed code using language structure, so queries can target constructs and complex statements as well as text patterns. It supports regular expressions and numeric values or ranges, and searches can disregard whitespace, line breaks, and comments. The maker says it can search millions of lines across tens of thousands of source files. Results include surrounding code and highlighted matches; users can open source text or launch an editor on the matching file. The engine also calculates Cyclomatic and Halstead complexity metrics and counts source, code, comment, and blank lines. Listed scanners include ABAP, C, C++, COBOL, Java, JavaScript, Python, PHP, SQL dialects, and XML, with beta scanners and custom options. Files are collected, scanned, and indexed on a recurring schedule. Results can be produced in XML for other graphical interfaces. The free evaluation covers 10,000 lines and requires registration; its license ends 90 days after download. Pricing for a production license is available on request.
Understand
Understand is a static analysis and code-comprehension tool from SciTools. It builds a cross-referenced model of source code without executing it, then helps users explore relationships through its Information Browser, call trees, dependency analysis, and visual graphs, including butterfly and control-flow views. It also provides metrics, CodeCheck, version comparison, APIs, a command-line interface, and AI chat. Supported languages include C/C++, C#, Fortran, Java, Python, Rust, VHDL, Visual Basic, and web languages such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript, TypeScript, PHP, and XML. It runs on Windows 11, specified Linux distributions, and macOS Monterey or later; command-line automation, CI, and an official Docker image are also available. The VS Code extension is separately licensed. Local AI keeps code and prompts on the user's hardware, while cloud AI sends requests with code context to the selected provider. Offline use is supported with offline licensing. Pricing includes a free plan and paid subscriptions from $100/user/mo (annual).