If you’re asking what is the best code review tool, the answer depends on your team’s workflow, but Typo stands out for growing engineering organizations because it identifies and auto-fixes issues before merge, speeding up reviews without compromising code quality or security.
Introduction
This article provides a comprehensive overview of the best code review tools available for modern software engineering teams. It is designed for VP Engineering, Directors, and DevEx or Platform leaders at organizations with 30-500+ engineers who seek better visibility into software delivery, stronger code quality, faster review cycles, and an improved developer experience. Choosing the right code review tool is crucial because it directly impacts your team’s productivity, code quality, and ability to deliver secure, maintainable software at scale. The best code review tools integrate directly into development workflows for efficient reviews.
Code review is an important process of orderly testing of software to find and remove errors, bugs, overflows, and other vulnerabilities found in the code. A good code review process is constructive, limited, and instructive.
It is important to review code because:
Improves code readability
Improves code quality
Creates better documentation
Optimizes code for better performance
Knowledge sharing
This process directly impacts the review time. For example, if reviewers are overloaded with work, they may take time to review the respective code. As a result, the review time will increase, which further results in high cycle time.
Key Steps in the Code Review Process
Conducting a thorough code review is crucial for maintaining quality and consistency in software development. Here are the key steps to follow:
Understand the Code's Purpose
Before diving into specifics, grasp what the code is intended to accomplish. Visualize possible outcomes and consider efficient solutions. If any part is unclear, seek clarification from colleagues to ensure a solid understanding.
Examine Coding Standards
Assess the adherence of the code to the project's established coding standards. This includes naming conventions, file organization, checking for style violations, and meeting basic quality standards to ensure consistency across the project.
Test the Code
Implement automated tests to validate that the code functions as expected, and use the review to identify missing tests. This step ensures that the outputs align with the intended purpose. Creating and following a checklist can streamline the testing process.
Optimize the Code
Post-validation, focus on refining the code. This may involve improving formatting, optimizing performance, and reducing code complexity, code smells, or unnecessary lines of code to enhance readability.
Document and Organize Feedback
Gather insights and feedback in an organized manner. Whether using digital note-taking apps or collaborative tools like code review platforms, keeping feedback structured helps in clear communication.
Share Findings
Present your findings in a structured format, either through detailed documentation or, if needed, in a concise meeting to facilitate discussion. This helps support effective code reviews so everyone stays aligned and can address any issues efficiently.
By following these steps, you can ensure a thorough and effective code review process that enhances the quality and maintainability of the software, especially when you apply best practices for code review consistently across your team.
Transitioning from understanding the code review process, let's now examine why code review tools are essential for modern development teams.
Why Code Review Tools are Important?
Code review tools automate and streamline the review process with automated analysis and more structured review workflows, reducing code review time. These tools can help provide a clear structure for the review, supporting maintaining quality standards and producing quality code.
Additionally, code review tools enforce consistent coding styles and architectural boundaries automatically, ensuring that teams adhere to best practices and project guidelines without manual oversight.
Code review tools help in getting a clear audit trail of the review process. For example, code authors, who reviewed the code, when it was reviewed, and feedback provided.
These tools facilitate knowledge-sharing and collaboration while also supporting compliance requirements.
Now, let's explore some of the top code review tools available today.
Top 8 Code Review Tools
Modern software engineering categorizes code review tools into three main types: native Git platforms, static analysis engines, and AI-powered reviewers. Native Git platforms (like GitHub and Bitbucket) provide built-in review workflows, static analysis engines (such as Codacy and Veracode) focus on automated code quality checks, and AI-powered reviewers (like Typo) leverage artificial intelligence to identify and fix issues automatically. The best code review tools integrate directly into development workflows for efficient reviews.
Below, we review the top 8 code review tools across these categories.
Typo's AI-powered code review tool identifies issues in your code and auto-fixes them before you merge to master. This means less time reviewing, while AI code review helps surface logic errors and catch real bugs before merge. It keeps your code error-free, making the whole process faster and smoother. This kind of AI review fits into existing workflows without slowing reviewers down.
Key Features
Supports top 8 languages including C++ and C#
Understands the context of the code across multiple files and fixes issues accurately
GitHub is a well-known open-source code repository tool with an in-built lightweight code review tool in its pull request. Hence, developers can easily integrate code reviews into their workflow, and many teams now pair GitHub with AI code review tools to improve their development workflow.
Key Features
Simple, user-friendly UI
Includes a code scanner feature with security scanning to identify security vulnerabilities and security issues
Provides detailed visibility into changes in pull requests across the entire codebase
Allows developers to follow up and revisit past reviews
Graphic representation of current status
In GitHub’s AI code review app ecosystem, CodeRabbit is the most installed AI code review app on GitHub and is installed on over 2 million repositories on GitHub
Pros
Ease of Use: Ideal for developers at every level, GitHub's intuitive interface simplifies code management and review processes.
Integrated Review Tools: The built-in code review tool in pull requests streamlines collaboration and feedback, works well for lightweight review workflows, and may feel familiar to teams used to merge requests in other platforms.
Rich Feature Set: Offers features including threaded comments, comparisons, diffs, and AI assistance that posts comments directly in pull requests for comprehensive code analysis.
Team Collaboration: Facilitates seamless teamwork with features designed for collective coding efforts.
Cons
Git Dependency: Users must navigate the intricacies of Git, which can be challenging for beginners, and GitHub is less suitable for teams that need multi VCS support.
Code Visualization: While functional, the visualization tools could be enhanced for a clearer depiction of code changes, and very busy reviews can lower the signal to noise ratio.
Learning Curve: Especially for command line operations, new users might face a steep learning curve.
Codacy is an automated review tool for static code analysis and fits into a broader ecosystem of code quality tools for improving software quality, though newer platforms like DeepSource combine static analysis and AI review in one platform, applying 5,000+ rules across 30+ languages. Benchmark-driven buyers may also look at examples such as DeepSource scoring 84.51% F1 on the OpenSSF CVE Benchmark. Supporting more than 40+ programming languages, Codacy also integrates with various popular tools and CI/CD workflows.
Key Features
Gives a clear picture of how projects are doing and how their quality is changing over time, particularly when you incorporate AI in the code review process.
Adaptable to your code review process.
Provides code coverage.
Helps in knowing the amount of technical debt and tracking code complexity.
Can identify duplication and poor code metric areas.
Automatically suggests issues, vulnerabilities, and coding standard improvements, while surfacing critical issues and reducing false positives to enhance code quality on the go.
Utilizes AI code review to suggest fixes, offering an advanced layer of automation.
Integrations
GitHub
JIRA
Slack
Third-party integrations for notifications and collaboration
Pros
Supports a wide variety of programming languages.
Automatically identifies and suggests fixes for issues.
Extensive integration capabilities with popular platforms.
Tracks code quality trends over time, helping with maintaining quality standards.
Cons
There is a learning curve as you familiarize yourself with its features.
Offers fewer integration options compared to some other tools, which might limit flexibility for certain teams.
Price
Free for open source teams
Paid plans start from $15 per developer per month, offering features like private repositories and advanced integration options
Bitbucket is a code hosting and collaboration tool from Atlassian. Teams often use Bitbucket for structured review workflows around pull requests and merge requests. It works well for engineering managers who want visibility into approvals and delivery flow. Bitbucket can easily integrate with other Atlassian tools like Jira, Bamboo, Jenkins, and many more.
Key Features
Provides a forum to discuss changes before they are merged into a new project.
Offers a built-in issue tracker.
Includes an automated pipeline build process, with automated tests running in CI/CD during builds.
Creates tasks out of code review comments.
Automatically integrates security scans and test results into the pull request view, helping reinforce code ownership when checks and follow-up tasks are tied to reviewers.
Pros
Enforces merge conditions, ensuring code quality and adherence to quality standards by preventing merges until all criteria are met.
The interface is user-friendly and easy to navigate.
Seamlessly integrates with JIRA, enhancing project management capabilities.
Supports a long list of integrations, making it versatile and compatible with various tools.
Cons
Branch management is less intuitive compared to other platforms like GitHub.
Initial configuration can be complex, which might be challenging for new users.
Gerrit works as a median between a developer and the central repository. It's an open-source code collaboration tool that facilitates developers in reviewing source code directly through a web-based system.
Key Features
Incorporates a Voting System: Encourages peer review and consensus on code changes.
Includes REST-like API: Allows for customized automation and support for review workflows, enhancing flexibility in development workflows.
Combines Review Tool and Bug Tracker: Merges essential functionalities to streamline development processes.
Customization Options: Offers extensive customization capabilities to tailor guarding policies, webhooks, and project access controls.
Error Detection: Helps analyze code before changes are accepted, assisting in identifying errors in the source code and improving code quality.
Pros
Simple Workflow: Gerrit boasts a straightforward and efficient workflow, which is easy for developers to adopt.
Git Repository Hosted: By being hosted through a Git repository, it maintains a clean and organized repository history.
Self-Hosted, Web-Based: Provides independence and accessibility for teams preferring specific hosting environments.
Cons
Git Exclusivity: Functions only with Git, which might limit its adoption for teams using different version control systems.
Admin Rights Requirement: Requires administrative rights to add repositories, potentially complicating setup for some users.
Easy Bypass with Force Code: Possibility of bypassing some workflows, posing a risk to process integrity.
Branch Management Challenges: Managing different branches can be more cumbersome compared to other tools.
Price
Free plan available
Enterprise-level solution (GerritForge): Starting at $16,100 annually for 50 users
Veracode is a SaaS-based static analysis tool that helps teams analyze code from a security standpoint, especially when they have strict compliance requirements and need built-in security scanning; similar tools in this category, such as SonarQube, integrate with various CI/CD tools for code quality checks, and teams must avoid common mistakes during code reviews to get full value from these scans.
Key Features
Gives test coverage by using binary code/bytecode with static analysis and rule-based static analysis
Automates different workflows with integrated and streamlined testing in SDLC, including automated analysis in CI/CD
Offers set of two code review tools - Static analysis and software composition analysis to detect security vulnerabilities and surface security issues
Provides mitigation management and helps flag SQL injection risks in sensitive code
Rhodecode is a comprehensive platform for Git, Mercurial, and Subversion that offers an integrated tool for code review. With its in-built security features, it ensures a secure environment for software development, providing seamless integration with your existing projects. It also suits teams with heterogeneous repositories better than Git-only tools, especially for distributed teams that benefit from AI-assisted remote code reviews.
Key Features
Unified Repository Management: Manage all your code repositories from a single, centralized control point. This unified system allows you to view all changes on one dashboard, enhancing team collaboration.
Workflow Automation: Streamline your development processes with automated workflows that reduce manual tasks and improve developer productivity, helping your team stay efficient and productive.
Integration Options: Rhodecode integrates smoothly with tools like JIRA, YouTrack, and Webhooks, fitting into existing workflows and enabling seamless project management and automation, particularly when paired with AI-powered PR summaries for efficient code reviews.
Project History Navigation: Easily navigate the history of your project across various branches, making it simple to track changes and progress.
Inline Code Reviews: Provide and receive feedback with inline code reviews, facilitating communication and improving code quality.
Pros
Multi-Version Control Support: Offers multi VCS support for Mercurial, Git, and Subversion, giving teams flexibility across different version control systems.
Security: Utilizes a robust access control list permissions system, ensuring your code remains secure.
Cons
Learning Curve: The tool presents a steep learning curve, with a user interface that may not be as intuitive as other platforms.
Community Size: Unlike larger platforms, the Rhodecode community is smaller, which can affect the availability of community-driven support and resources.
Review Board is a free, open-source, web-based document review tool that lets you perform both pre-commit and post-commit code reviews based on your requirements. Teams comparing open source tools often also look at Gitea and SCM-Manager for lighter-weight repository and review workflows. Gitea integrates with GitHub, GitLab, and Bitbucket, and it is often noted for consuming 40x less memory than GitLab CE, while SCM-Manager offers plugin-based extensions for CI integration.
Key Features
Offers smart indentation handling for code review
Private, secure, and in control
Integrates seamlessly with a wide range of version control systems, which helps teams evaluating open-source options against other code review tools
Allows reviewing code as well as PDFs, documentation, and graphics
Streamlines the review workflow with Slack, Asana, Jenkins, Trello, fitting easily into existing workflows
Pros
Open-source and highly customizable
Supports multiple VCS
Handles both code and document reviews
Cons
Paid plans can be expensive for larger teams
UI may feel dated compared to newer tools
Price
Free plan available
Paid plans start from $29 per user, per month
Having explored the top code review tools and their categories, let's now see how Typo connects with these tools to further enhance engineering productivity and reduce review cycle time.
How Typo and Code Review tools are Connected?
Code review tools automate your code review process to increase efficiency, reduce code review time, and improve developer productivity. Typo, as an AI-powered engineering intelligence platform, connects these workflows to engineering outcomes by providing instantaneous cycle time measurement for both your organization and each development team using your Git provider.
Furthermore, Typo supports modern automated dev workflows with AI coding tools and AI code review tools that help teams ship pull requests and complete reviews faster. As a result, it helps save time and effort while improving your PR cycle time.
Advanced platforms may process 400,000+ files for analysis and use a context engine to understand the entire codebase.
Some tools, such as CodeRabbit, integrate context from 40+ linters for code reviews, but teams should still keep pull requests small for better review quality.
