The best modern code review tools (2022)
What’s in a tool?
Developers are notoriously picky about their tools. After all, vim vs emacs may be the internet’s original flame war. We obsess over the right IDE, argue endlessly over JavaScript frameworks, and learn the keyboard shortcuts of every single app we use.
But despite our tool obsession, most developers just use the code review tool that comes with their version control system. These days GitHub is the center of the coding universe and the vast majority of people who write code on GitHub use GitHub’s native Pull Request review tool to review code. It doesn’t have to be that way! There are a remarkable number of modern tools for code review available today, and it’s almost certain that one of them will be better suited for your team’s workflow than plain-old GitHub PRs.
Just want the list? Here’s the breakdown. Below we’ll talk about what makes each one interesting. They’re in alphabetical order, no ranking here!
Axolo
Axolo may not be what you expect when you hear “code review tool”. You’re probably imagining a screen full of diffs. Not here! Axolo is all about conversations. Specifically, Axolo takes all of the normal back-and-forth on GitHub and brings the conversation into Slack. The idea here is not to change how you review the code (you’ll still be using GitHub’s interface for that) but to make the communication around the review as seamless as possible.
CodeApprove
CodeApprove takes the GitHub review experience and reimagines it for power users. CodeApprove’s was designed by an ex-Googler to bring the best of Google’s internal review tools to the outside world. Gone are the days of chasing down hidden or outdated comments across diffs, CodeApprove ensures that every conversation is resolved before a review is merged. Combine that with a speedy, information-dense interface designed with keyboard shortcuts in mind and you’ll be reviewing more code, faster in no time.
CodeStream
Wish code review wasn’t such a big event? CodeStream has you covered. With CodeStream the review happens at any time and you never leave your IDE. Rather than just reviewing a diff, CodeStream gives you access to the whole source tree so you can review code using the same tools you use to write it. And best of all when you’re done reviewing, the comments live alongside the code to form a living knowlege base for your team.
Crocodile
Crocodile brings a number of subtle quality of life improvements to code review that add up to a huge improvement. Comments can be placed anywhere (not just in the diff) and float next to the code rather than getting in your way. The interface allows you to quickly get a sense of what has changed since your last review and know when it’s “your turn” to review again.
Graphite
Graphite is a full suite of tools to help you ship smaller changes, faster. Graphite isn’t the only tool on this list to try and bring the magic of stacked changes to GitHub, but it really delivers on execution. With the Graphite CLI you’ll be stacking up changes like a pro in no time. Once you try this workflow, you might never want to go back to the old way again.
Mergeboard
Mergeboard lets you customize everything about your code review experience. It starts with the diffing, where Mergeboard shows off its intelligence by ignoring insignificant style changes and helping you identify related changes across code blocks. You also have complete control over the conversation, every thread has its own resolution state and you can choose how many approvals a change needs before it gets merged.
plz.review
Heard of stacked pull changes? If you’ve ever had a coworker who worked at Facebook, I bet you have. plz.review combines a custom CLI and a web interface to bring the best parts of the stacked changes workflow to GitHub. By breaking things down into smaller changes stacked on top of each other you can speed up your code reviews without slowing down your dev team.
Reviewable
Very few tools can claim to have been in game of improving GitHub as long as Reviewable. Reviewable improves your reviews in two major ways. First, it tracks the resolution state of every discussion with customizable logic to make sure your code is not approved until everyone is on the same page. Second, it adds intelligent diffing to show you exactly what changed since your last review (even across rebases). Reviewable has been integrating with GitHub for nearly a decade now so you can count on it being seamless for your team.
Reviewpad
Rather than replace GitHub entirely, ReviewPad works within the GitHub ecosystem to improve your code review process. It combines a number of customizable GitHub actions to help you review code better and faster without introducing major changes into your team’s processes.
Viezly
Think every code review tool looks the same? Well, not Viezly. Viezly reimagines the traditional pile of diffs into a graph that helps you understand what files were changed and how they relate to each other. You’ll be able to quickly find the core of the change and get through large pull requests with ease.
Wrapping Up
If you’ve read this far, you probably also noticed that this post is on the CodeApprove blog. So why are we writing this blog post and saying such nice things about the competition? Well, at CodeApprove we believe that code review doesn’t get the respect it deserves. Developers might spend 20–50% of their time reviewing code, but they’re not getting to choose the best tool for their team. Let’s change that! This may not be the year of the Linux Desktop, but it can be the year that we all free ourselves from GitHub Pull Requests and get the tools we need to do better code reviews.
P.S. If you’re interested in trying CodeApprove, just fill out this form and we’ll get you added to the alpha.
