Collaboration and code review are key to writing great software. Whether you’re fixing a tiny bug or shipping a big feature, having a set of eyes (human or machine!) on your code is super helpful. But what happens when you’re on a big team with tight deadlines? That’s where automation tools come in. They help you keep code clean, tidy, and secure—before anyone hits “Merge.”
TLDR
This article covers 8 awesome GitHub and GitLab code review tools. These tools automate quality checks, find bugs, and suggest fixes before code gets merged. They save developer time and boost confidence in every pull request. If your team loves clean code, you’ll want to try them!
1. Sider – Code Review That Doesn’t Sleep
Sider is like having a dedicated reviewer who’s always on time and never misses a detail. It analyzes your pull requests as soon as they’re created and provides inline comments with clean suggestions.
- Languages: Supports Python, JavaScript, PHP, Ruby, and more.
- Features: Auto-detects style violations and potential bugs.
- Cool Part: It’s super customizable and even supports custom rules.
Sider is perfect for teams who want to automate code style enforcement with a human touch.
2. Reviewpad – The Chatty Code Sidekick
Reviewpad is a GitHub-native tool with a knack for understanding your team’s workflow. It’s smart, chatty, and helpful—it knows if you forgot to write tests or if you skipped documentation.
- Team-focused: Understands roles, areas of code ownership, and review processes.
- Automation: Custom rules help enforce your team’s conventions.
- Fun Bit: It combines natural language and version control data to make smarter review decisions.
Reviewpad is like a super-aware teammate who’s always watching out for project health.
3. Codacy – Your Personal Code Health Tracker
Just like a fitness tracker tells you when you haven’t moved enough, Codacy tells you when your code needs a little care. It scans every push and pull request and offers insights on security, duplication, and code style.
- Metrics: Tracks technical debt and code coverage over time.
- Languages: Supports over 40 languages!
- Integration: Works with GitHub, GitLab, and Bitbucket.
This one’s great for teams working across huge codebases trying to reduce legacy mess.
4. Lgtm.com – It Actually Stands for “Let’s Get Those Mergable!”
Yep, LGTM (Looks Good To Me) can be more than just a comment in your pull request. Lgtm.com automatically scans for possible vulnerabilities and ensures your team merges only quality code.
- Powered by: Semmle code analysis engine.
- Highlights: Finds obscure vulnerabilities that even experienced devs miss.
- Visibility: Provides metrics dashboards across your repos.
It’s like a security guard who also happens to be a gifted developer.
5. SonarCloud – Cloudy With a Chance of Cleaner Code
SonarCloud sniffs out bugs, code smells, and security issues before they hit production. Its bright, color-coded dashboards make hunting technical debt feel almost… fun!
- Deep Insights: Understand trends, complexity, and testing gaps.
- Instant Checks: Analyzes every push and merge request in minutes.
- Languages: Covers 25+ languages including Java, C++, and JavaScript.
If visual learners ruled the world, they’d all use SonarCloud.
6. DeepCode (by Snyk) – Like GPT for Non-Human Review
DeepCode doesn’t just scan your lines—it understands them. Thanks to AI-powered analysis, it gets the nuances in your code logic.
- Real-Time Suggestions: Smart fixes for bugs and bad practices.
- Secure by Default: Built on Snyk’s industry-leading security scanners.
- Learning Model: It gets smarter the more it sees your codebase.
This tool is perfect for devs who want machine learning on their side during reviews.
7. Danger – The Friendly Danger Bot
Danger isn’t scary—it’s helpful. Instead of reviewing code quality directly, Danger reviews your pull request hygiene. It checks for missing changelogs, brief descriptions, and lack of tests.
- Scripting Power: Write custom rules in JavaScript or Ruby.
- Team Norms: Enforces PR standards automatically.
- Open Source: Highly customizable and community-supported.
You’ll wonder why you ever nagged teammates manually about missing checklist items.
8. CodeScene – CSI for Code Review
CodeScene uses behavioral code analysis to look at how your team is working—not just what. It predicts hotspots, shows risky files, and helps manage technical debt.
- Behavior Tracking: Understand churn, complexity, and ownership.
- Merge Checks: Warns about risky changes before they’re merged.
- Agile Sync: Helps teams prioritize based on effort and impact.
This tool gives every team lead the power of a data-driven CTO.
Wrapping It All Up 🎁
Adding these extensions to your GitHub or GitLab workflow is like upgrading your team’s code editor with a fleet of helpful bots. They check your code, run tests, enforce rules, and even make sure you didn’t forget to write a README.
Pro tip: Don’t add them all at once! Start with one or two that fix your biggest headaches. As your workflow evolves, add more to cover other gaps.
Here’s a quick checklist of the stars from above:
- Sider: Automated inline suggestions
- Reviewpad: Role-aware collaboration
- Codacy: Metrics and static analysis
- Lgtm.com: Code security scanning
- SonarCloud: Bug and quality tracking
- DeepCode: AI-powered bug detection
- Danger: PR etiquette monitoring
- CodeScene: Developer behavior and risk analysis
Use these tools to automate the boring stuff, protect against bugs, and let your teams focus on writing exciting features. Because yes, clean code is happy code ✨