Compare software

CodeQL vs SpotBugs: catalog facts
CodeQL	SpotBugs
Freemium Free for research and open source code; other use falls under GitHub's CodeQL terms.	Free Free software under the GNU Lesser General Public License.
Command line	Windows, macOS, Linux, Command line
Queries follow data flow from source to sink across a codebase Finds every variant of a known bug pattern	Checks more than 400 bug patterns Integrations for Maven, Gradle, Ant and Eclipse
Free use is limited to research and open source code Writing custom queries means learning the QL language	Requires Java 11 or later to run Java bytecode only, not other languages
Downloadable app	Downloadable app
Closed source	Open source
License: GitHub CodeQL Terms and Conditions	License: LGPL-2.1-only
Not stated if an account is needed	No account needed
Not stated if it works offline	Works offline
Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 24, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Checked October 2, 2026

Catalog facts only. Anything “not stated” is unconfirmed. Check full listings for details.