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Cppcheck VS CodeSonar

Compare Cppcheck VS CodeSonar and see what are their differences

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Cppcheck logo Cppcheck

Cppcheck is an analysis tool for C/C++ code. It detects the types of bugs that the compilers normally fail to detect. The goal is no false positives. CppCheckDownload cppcheck for free.

CodeSonar logo CodeSonar

CodeSonar, produced by GrammaTech, is source and binary code analysis software that finds critical defects that can crash systems, result in unexpected operations, threaten security, and more.
  • Cppcheck Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-10-13
  • CodeSonar Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-23

Cppcheck features and specs

  • Open Source
    Cppcheck is open-source software, which means it is free to use and its source code is available for modification and distribution under the terms of the GNU General Public License.
  • Static Analysis
    Cppcheck excels at performing static code analysis, detecting bugs, memory leaks, and potential issues in C and C++ code without executing the program.
  • Wide Platform Support
    Cppcheck supports a wide range of platforms, including Windows, Linux, and macOS, making it versatile and accessible to developers on different operating systems.
  • Integrated with IDEs
    Cppcheck can be integrated with popular Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) like Visual Studio, Eclipse, and Code::Blocks, providing seamless code analysis during development.
  • Customizable
    Cppcheck allows customization of its analysis through command-line options and configurations, enabling users to tailor the tool to their specific needs and project requirements.
  • Extensive Reporting
    Cppcheck provides detailed reports that highlight various types of issues, making it easier for developers to identify and resolve problems efficiently.
  • Regular Updates
    Cppcheck is actively maintained, with regular updates and improvements that enhance its capabilities and address any newly discovered issues.

Possible disadvantages of Cppcheck

  • False Positives
    Cppcheck may sometimes produce false positives, flagging issues that are not actually problematic, which can lead to unnecessary debugging efforts.
  • Learning Curve
    New users may encounter a learning curve when first using Cppcheck, as they need to understand its configuration options and how to interpret its output effectively.
  • Limited Dynamic Analysis
    Cppcheck focuses on static analysis and does not provide dynamic analysis capabilities, which means it cannot detect issues that only occur at runtime.
  • Performance Overhead
    Running Cppcheck on large codebases can introduce performance overhead, potentially slowing down the development process if not managed properly.
  • Complex Configuration
    For complex projects, configuring Cppcheck to ignore certain false positives or to focus on specific types of issues can be challenging and time-consuming.

CodeSonar features and specs

  • Comprehensive Analysis
    CodeSonar performs deep static analysis and can detect a wide range of coding errors, including buffer overruns, data races, and API misuse, providing extensive code coverage and improving software reliability.
  • Integration Capabilities
    It integrates with various development tools and environments, including IDEs like Eclipse and Visual Studio, CI/CD systems, and other development workflows, enhancing productivity and collaboration.
  • Scalability
    Designed to handle large codebases efficiently, CodeSonar can scale to meet the needs of small teams to large enterprises, making it suitable for projects of varying sizes.
  • Customizability
    Offers the option to customize checks and create new analyses through a user-friendly interface, allowing developers to tailor the tool to their specific project's needs.
  • Security Focus
    Includes features to identify security vulnerabilities, making it useful for organizations that prioritize security in their development process.

Possible disadvantages of CodeSonar

  • High Cost
    CodeSonar is a premium product, and its licensing costs can be significant, which might be a barrier for smaller companies or individual developers.
  • Complexity
    The tool is complex and may require a steep learning curve for new users to fully understand and utilize all its features effectively, potentially leading to a longer onboarding process.
  • Resource Intensive
    Running comprehensive analyses can be resource-intensive, requiring powerful hardware to perform efficiently, which might not be feasible for all development environments.
  • False Positives
    As with many static analysis tools, CodeSonar may generate false positives, requiring additional time and effort from the development team to manually verify and filter out irrelevant warnings.
  • Limited Language Support
    While supporting several programming languages, it may not cover all languages used by a team, limiting its utility for projects utilizing less common languages.

Cppcheck videos

Cppcheck

More videos:

  • Review - Daniel Marjamäki: Cppcheck, static code analysis

CodeSonar videos

What is CodeSonar - Static Code Analysis

More videos:

  • Review - Introduction to CodeSonar
  • Review - GrammaTech CodeSonar

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Cppcheck and CodeSonar)
Code Analysis
64 64%
36% 36
Code Coverage
64 64%
36% 36
Code Review
61 61%
39% 39
Development
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Cppcheck and CodeSonar

Cppcheck Reviews

Top 9 C++ Static Code Analysis Tools
Cppcheck is a popular, open-source, free, cross-platform static code analysis tool dedicated to C and C++. It is known for being easy to use and its simplicity is one of its pros. To get started with it you don’t have to do any adjustments or modifications, which is why it’s often recommended for beginners. It also has a reputation of reporting a relatively small number of...

CodeSonar Reviews

11 Interesting Tools for Auditing and Managing Code Quality
CodeSonar is a statistical code analysis tool that analyses the code from a computational perspective. It is able to develop models from your code, analyze them for potential execution threats like deadlocks, memory overflow, null pointers, data leaks, and numerous such programmatic errors that might be difficult to catch.
Source: geekflare.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Cppcheck seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 10 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Cppcheck mentions (10)

  • Configuring Cppcheck, Cpplint, and JSON Lint
    I dedicated Sunday morning to going over the documentation of the linters we use in the project. The goal was to understand all options and use them in the best way for our project. Seeing their manuals side by side was nice because even very similar things are solved differently. Cppcheck is the most configurable and best documented; JSON Lint lies at the other end. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • Enforcing Memory Safety?
    Using infer, someone else exploited null-dereference checks to introduce simple affine types in C++. Cppcheck also checks for null-dereferences. Unfortunately, that approach means that borrow-counting references have a larger sizeof than non-borrow counting references, so optimizing the count away potentially changes the semantics of a program which introduces a whole new way of writing subtly wrong code. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Static Code analysis
    For my own projects, I used cppcheck. You can check out that tool to get a feel. Depending on what industry your in, you might need to follow a standard like Misra. Source: about 2 years ago
  • How do you not shoot yourself in the foot ?
    Https://cppcheck.sourceforge.io/ (there are many other static analysis tools, I just haven't used them or didn't care for them). Source: about 2 years ago
  • Linting tool for prohibiting the use of specific std types
    Sounds like something that could simply be communicated with the team that writes the tests. Unless you have dozens of such classes. In that case, you could just use e.g. Cppcheck and add a rule (regular expression) that searches for usages of the forbidden classes. Source: over 2 years ago
View more

CodeSonar mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of CodeSonar yet. Tracking of CodeSonar recommendations started around Mar 2021.

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Cppcheck and CodeSonar, you can also consider the following products

SonarQube - SonarQube, a core component of the Sonar solution, is an open source, self-managed tool that systematically helps developers and organizations deliver Clean Code.

Coverity Scan - Find and fix defects in your Java, C/C++ or C# open source project for free

Clang Static Analyzer - The Clang Static Analyzer is a source code analysis tool that finds bugs in C, C++, and Objective-C...

Checkmarx - The industry’s most comprehensive AppSec platform, Checkmarx One is fast, accurate, and accelerates your business.

Parasoft C/C++test - Ensure compliance with a variety of functional safety, security, and coding standards in embedded C/C++ software.

Appknox - Appknox is a cloud-based mobile app security solution to detect threats and vulnerabilities in the app.