Side by side

PMD vs SourcererCC

Both stand on code duplication detection tools. Which one you can start free with, which one lets you read the code, and what each costs once you pay.

PMD

Free plan LinuxMacSelf-hosted+1

PMD combines broad language coverage, custom rules, and bundled duplicate detection without a listed price. Check language-specific rule coverage and version support before adopting it.

Visit PMD

SourcererCC

Free plan LinuxSelf-hosted

SourcererCC offers configurable token-based clone detection across several code granularities. Plan for tokenization and multi-node result aggregation, and note the stated Mac limitation.

Visit SourcererCC

The facts

	PMD	SourcererCC
Free plan	Yes	Yes
Open source	Not published	Not published
Runs on	Linux, Mac, Self-hosted, Windows	Linux, Self-hosted
Lowest paid plan	Free or on request	Not published
Plans published	1	None
Maker	Not published	Not published
Website	pmd.github.io	github.com
On code duplication detection tools	#8 of 18	#12 of 18

PMD: what it does well

Free, with more than 400 built-in rules.
Custom rules can be written in Java or XPath.
Bundled CPD detects duplicated code.
Runs through several build tools and CI integrations.

What to know first

Requires Java 8 or above.
Scala support has no Scala rules.
Only the latest major version is actively developed.
Some listed IDE plugins are not actively maintained.

SourcererCC: what it does well

Detects clones at file, method, statement, or block level.
Configurable language settings and file extensions.
Similarity threshold can be changed from 80%.
Includes a virtual machine artifact for getting started.
Free and licensed under GPL-3.0.

What to know first

Source code must be tokenized before detection.
Defaults exclude files below 65 or above 500,000 tokens.
Mac multiprocessing requires Python 3.6, per the tutorial.
Detection work is split across nodes and results aggregated.

Alternatives to PMD Alternatives to SourcererCC The whole list