Coverity vs Codacy

by Gralio Mar 14, 2025

Coverity and Codacy are both static analysis tools aimed at improving code quality and security, but their focus differs. Coverity excels in deep C/C++ analysis, providing detailed explanations for complex issues. Codacy offers broader language support, engineering performance monitoring, and a security dashboard, appealing to teams with diverse tech stacks and a focus on performance optimization.

At Gralio.ai we help to simplify your decision-making process by offering detailed, side-by-side software comparisons like this one, to help you confidently choose the tool that aligns with your business goals.

This comparison was created by analysing 84 reviews and 60 websites, saving 58 minutes of reading.

Coverity

Website LinkedIn Twitter

Codacy

Website LinkedIn Twitter

About

Coverity is a tool that helps find and fix security flaws and coding errors within software. It examines your code for potential problems, explains the cause of each issue, and makes it easy for developers to fix them. This helps companies release more secure software and comply with industry coding standards. Coverity is known for its speed, accuracy, and ability to work with large, complex codebases.

Codacy helps software development teams improve code quality and security. It automatically checks your code for errors, vulnerabilities, and style inconsistencies as you write it. This helps developers find and fix problems early, saving time and money on fixing issues later. Codacy supports over 40 programming languages and integrates with popular development tools.

Summary

Main difference

Coverity is best known for its deep analysis of C/C++ code and detailed explanations of complex bugs, making it ideal for teams focused on these languages. Codacy supports a broader range of languages and offers features like engineering performance monitoring (DORA metrics) and security dashboards, catering to teams prioritizing code quality across multiple languages and performance insights.

Relative strengths of Coverity (compared to Codacy)

Strong C/C++ analysis with detailed explanations, particularly for memory-related issues.
Good integration with CI/CD pipelines for automated code analysis.
Centralized reporting and issue tracking improves team collaboration.

Relative weaknesses of Coverity (compared to Codacy)

Can be slow and resource-intensive for larger projects, potentially impacting performance.
Reports of frequent false positives may increase manual review time.
Limited language support compared to Codacy may restrict its use for diverse teams.

What companies are using Coverity and Codacy?

No data

Bliss Applications

Pax8

Genesys

Who should use Coverity VS. Codacy

Coverity helps developers find and fix security flaws and coding errors in software. It scans code, explains issues, and offers solutions, enabling secure software releases and compliance with industry standards. Users praise its ability to detect complex C++ bugs and helpful explanations, while some note frequent false positives and resource intensiveness.

Codacy is a code quality and security analysis tool that helps development teams catch and fix issues early. Users praise its integrations, helpful support, and positive impact on code quality. However, some find analysis of large codebases slow and desire more custom rule flexibility. Codacy is ideal for teams seeking improved code safety and vulnerability management.

Best for medium-sized businesses (101-1000 employees).
Ideal for software development teams.

Ideal for small to medium businesses (1-1000 employees), but also suitable for larger enterprises.
Best fit for software development teams in any industry focused on code quality and security.

Coverity and Codacy features

Supported

Partially supported

Not supported

Type in the name of the feature or in your own words tell us what you need

Comprehensive Code Analysis

Supported

Coverity analyzes every line of code and all execution paths for comprehensive testing.

Partially supported

Codacy performs static analysis, which analyzes code without execution, focusing on identifying potential issues rather than all execution paths.
Clear Defect Explanation

Supported

Coverity provides detailed remediation guidance, including descriptions and CWE data, to aid in efficient bug fixing.

Partially supported

Codacy provides detailed information about issues, but clear explanations of the root cause are not explicitly mentioned.
Automated Code Reviews

Supported

Coverity automates code reviews via static analysis, real-time feedback, and integrations with development tools.

Supported

Codacy automates code reviews and enforces quality standards via static analysis and integrations.
GitHub integration

Supported

Coverity integrates with GitHub for automated scanning and reporting using GitHub Actions.

Supported

Codacy integrates with GitHub for automated code scanning and reporting on pull requests.
Historical analysis

Not supported

Coverity does not explicitly support historical analysis for secrets.

Partially supported

Codacy performs security checks, but historical analysis for secrets is not explicitly confirmed.
CI/CD integration

Supported

Coverity integrates with CI/CD pipelines, including Travis CI, Jenkins, Azure DevOps, and GitLab.

Partially supported

Codacy integrates with CI/CD pipelines for code quality, which can indirectly help identify vulnerabilities.

Qualities

Value and Pricing Transparency

No data

No data
Customer Service

No data

No data
Ease of Use

No data

No data
Reliability and Performance

No data

No data
Ease of Implementation

No data

No data
Scalability

No data

No data

Coverity and Codacy Pricing

No data

We couldn't find a pricing page for Coverity.

No data

User sentiment

Strongly negative

-1

We couldn't find a pricing page for Codacy.

Coverity and Codacy review insights

84 reviews analysed from

Users love

Excellent at detecting complex C++ bugs, especially memory-related issues.
Provides detailed and helpful explanations of identified defects.
Integrates well with CI/CD pipelines for automated code analysis.
Helps enforce coding standards and improve code quality.
Centralized reporting and issue tracking facilitates team collaboration.

Quality gates and static code analysis improve code safety.
Easy integration with code repositories.
Helpful and responsive customer support.
Improved overall code quality and early issue detection.
Useful security dashboard and vulnerability management.

Users dislike

False positives can be frequent, requiring manual review.
Can be slow and resource-intensive, especially for large projects.
UI/UX could be improved for better navigation and clarity.
Limited language support beyond C/C++ reduces its applicability.
Reporting features could be enhanced with more customization options and faster generation times.

Analysis of large codebases can be slow or get stuck, requiring re-analysis.
Limited flexibility in custom rule creation.
Lack of official support for RHEL.
No local code analysis before commit.
Limited C++ tool support.
Monorepo support is lacking.

Coverity and Codacy Ratings

G2

4.2/5

(56)
Glassdoor

4.0/5

(4056)

G2

4.6/5

(28)
Glassdoor

3.0/5

(24)

Company health

Employee growth

9% increase in the last year

13% decrease in the last year

Web traffic

26% decrease in the last quarter

30% decrease in the last quarter

Financing

October 2022 - $0

June 2022 - $29M

How do Coverity and Codacy compare in C++ analysis depth?

Coverity is generally praised for its deep C++ analysis, particularly for uncovering complex memory-related issues. While Codacy supports C++, user reviews indicate its C++ analysis capabilities are more limited than Coverity's, especially regarding tool support. Therefore, Coverity likely offers more depth in C++ analysis.

Which product best integrates with existing CI/CD pipelines?

Both Coverity and Codacy integrate with CI/CD pipelines. However, Coverity receives more positive user feedback regarding its CI/CD integration, specifically mentioning its seamless incorporation into automated code analysis processes. While Codacy integrates with GitHub for automated scanning, some users report issues with slow analysis of larger codebases. Therefore, Coverity appears to be the slightly better choice for CI/CD integration based on user reviews.

What are the advantages of Coverity?

Coverity's advantages include its comprehensive code analysis, examining every line of code and all execution paths, and clear defect explanations with remediation guidance. It's known for its speed and accuracy, particularly with large, complex codebases, and integrates well with various development platforms and tools. Users specifically praise its ability to detect complex C++ bugs, especially memory-related issues.

What are the disadvantages of Coverity?

Coverity's disadvantages include a tendency to produce false positives, requiring manual review and potentially slowing down the development process. It can also be resource-intensive, especially for larger projects, impacting performance. Some users find the UI/UX to be less than ideal, and the software has limited language support beyond C/C++, which restricts its applicability for some teams. Finally, reporting features could benefit from more customization options and faster generation times.

Alternatives to Coverity and Codacy

SonarQube

SonarQube helps development teams write better and more secure code. It integrates into your existing workflow and flags potential bugs, security vulnerabilities, and code quality issues in real-time. This helps you catch and fix problems early in the development process, saving time and money in the long run. SonarQube supports many popular programming languages and offers different editions to suit the needs of small teams and large enterprises.

Snyk

Snyk is a security platform that helps businesses find and fix security weaknesses in their software. It scans code, open-source libraries, containers, and cloud infrastructure for known vulnerabilities. Snyk provides actionable insights to fix these vulnerabilities, ensuring your applications are secure throughout their lifecycle. It integrates with development tools to help developers build secure software from the start. Snyk offers visibility into potential risks and helps meet compliance requirements.

Semgrep

Semgrep is a code analysis tool that helps companies find and fix security problems in their software. It scans code for vulnerabilities and provides clear explanations, making it easy for developers to understand and address the issues. Semgrep integrates with existing development processes and can be customized to an organization's specific needs. This helps teams find and fix security issues early in the development process, saving time and resources.

Coveralls

Coveralls is a tool that helps you understand how well your software is tested. It integrates with your existing tools to measure what percentage of your code is covered by tests, giving you confidence that changes aren't introducing new problems. Coveralls provides a dashboard to visualize trends in your testing over time and can be configured to notify you of issues. It supports a wide variety of programming languages and common software development tools.

Jit

Jit is a comprehensive security platform designed for developers. It helps identify and fix vulnerabilities in your software and cloud infrastructure throughout the development process. Jit integrates with your existing tools and workflows, providing automated security checks and suggesting fixes directly in your coding environment. It prioritizes the most critical alerts and offers centralized reporting, giving you clear visibility into your security posture and helping your developers build secure software faster.

GitGuardian

GitGuardian is a security software that finds and helps fix risky code within a company's software development process. It scans code for hidden credentials and sensitive information that could be exploited. This helps companies prevent security breaches by finding and fixing vulnerabilities before they become a problem. GitGuardian is known for its accuracy in detecting these risks and its easy integration into existing developer workflows.

Page co-authored by

Michal Kaczor

CEO at Gralio

Michal has worked at startups for many years and writes about topics relating to software selection and IT management. As a former consultant for Bain, a business advisory company, he also knows how to understand needs of any business and find solutions to its problems.

Tymon Terlikiewicz

CTO at Gralio

Tymon is a seasoned CTO who loves finding the perfect tools for any task. He recently headed up the tech department at Batmaid, a well-known Swiss company, where he managed about 60 software purchases, including CX, HR, Payroll, Marketing automation and various developer tools.

How are we doing?

Is this information helpful to you? Is there anything we are missing?

Did this help you select your product?

Other issues? Vote & Let us know