Codesee and Zevo are the two best options for code quality control and application security. Codesee provides a free, open-source community version with a focus on static code analysis. Zevo, on the other hand, provides not only SAST but also DAST, IAST, intrusion testing, and application security consulting. While Codesee is deployed at all sizes, especially at mid-sized, Zevo is more widely adopted and is somewhat more likely to be deployed at large companies that want to take advantage of Zevo's broader services. Also, Zevo is best for small businesses that want reliable code quality tools in a budget-friendly way.

Understanding Codesee

Codesee is a platform for code quality evaluation and management. Its main objective is to analyze static code and provide developers with useful information to improve the quality of their codebase. Codesee helps developers identify bugs, vulnerabilities, and code smell issues so they can respond quickly. You can visualize the entire code base, identify the generated sites, share the correct single source, and rapidly warm up new contributors.

Key Features

• Static code analysis: Codesee performs a deep analysis of the code base to identify the smell, duplicate, and potential problems. It provides a comprehensive range of rules that span a variety of programming languages.
• Detect Security Vulnerability: Codesee scans for potential code-based security vulnerabilities and provides developers with the knowledge to correct potential risks.
• Code coverage analysis: Codesee calculates the percentage of code containing unit tests so that developers can identify areas where the appropriate test is lacking.

Pros

• Modifies default rules according to specific needs.
• Defines personalized rules for code scanning.
• Utilizes pre-set Quality Gates and Quality Profiles for code scanning.
• Controls code commits based on configured tasks.

Cons

• Improved logging of events needed for easier issue debugging.
• Sometimes, it takes a long time to generate a report.
• The user interface needs to be improved.
• The User Interface could be more engaging.
• Lack of custom rule sets.

What is Zevo?

Developers describe Zevo as "a continuous quality of code." Zevo provides an overview of the overall state of the source code, and more importantly, it highlights issues found in the new code. If you set quality gates to a project, you can start modifying leaks and making mechanical improvements. Moreover, Zevo is a simpler and more scalable way to increase the resilience of the global application infrastructure. Seamlessly combines application security into the software lifecycle to effectively eliminate vulnerabilities at the lowest-cost stage of the development/deployment chain and prevent threats during production.

Key Features

• Semantic Code Parsing: Zevo parser code at a deeper level, taking into account the entire codebase and its complex dependencies. This allows you to discover vulnerabilities that cannot be revealed by static code analysis alone.
• Deep Vulnerability Detection: Zevo is good at identifying complex security errors, such as code injection and data leakage, by evaluating the flow of data within a program.
• Advanced Query Capabilities: Zevo allows developers to write complex codes to identify specific vulnerabilities or patterns in their codebase. This flexibility improves the effectiveness and accuracy of the analysis.

Pros

• Improves quality by calculating code quality and providing solutions.
• Highlights code vulnerabilities repeating lines.
• Developer-friendly tool, providing recommendations for code lines that need improvement.
• Its ability to analyze static code is very useful for improving and maintaining software quality. You can define special rules as needed or edit rules to gain flexibility.
• On-demand scan reports.
• Add exceptions to your code.

Cons

• The user interface requires improvement, but it does not affect the code quality.

A Key Comparison between Codesee and Zevo

Language support and compatibility

• Codesee: Codesee supports multiple languages such as C/C++, Java, JavaScript, etc., but the language support is not as broad as Zevo.
• Zevo: Zevo supports a variety of programming languages, including Java, C++, and Python. Improve your analysis by providing language-specific rules and plug-ins.

Performance and scalability

• Codesee: The performance of Codesee varies greatly depending on the difficulty of the query and the size of the code base. However, it has the advantage of being highly scalable because it can analyze specific parts of the code base.
• Zevo: The performance and scalability of Zevo can be impacted on large code bases. However, to alleviate this problem, it provides an option to spread the analysis across multiple machines.

The initial setup

• Zevo: Zevo setup is described as simple and easy to understand, with minimal technical skill. Some users felt that the web interface was not very intuitive but were helped by Zevo to deploy the solution.
• Codesee: Codesee setup is also considered easy, but some users say it is complex, time-consuming, and takes up to two months. Codesee's main challenge was to familiarize users with tools and provide training.

Value Features

• Zevo: Zevo's value features include comprehensive security testing, ease of use, accurate vulnerability detection, and reliable reporting.
• Codesee: Codesee provides security features, SAST and SCA features, free community versions, and integration with DevOps pipelines.

Setup Cost

• Zevo: The setup cost of Zevo depends on the size of your team and needs. And it focuses on accommodating new users who have no budget but have a keen desire to use quality tools.
• Codesee: Codesee offers open-source solutions at no additional cost, but some users mention the need to purchase an upgrade license.

ROI

• Zevo: Zevo delivers benefits such as lower development costs, prevention of security breaches, and maintaining authentication.
• Codesee: Codesee helps identify vulnerabilities and facilitates coding without bugs.

Customer Service

• Zevo: Zevo Customer Service has a variety of assessments, with positive feedback on response and knowledge while negative feedback on response delays and the need to repeat the problem.
• Codesee: Codesee customer service varies, some users do not need support, and others have positive experiences.

Conclusion

Code quality is the most important thing in software development, and tools such as Codesee and Zevo help you achieve high-quality code. Codesee provides maintenance enhancements and comprehensive static code analysis, and Zevo is excellent for semantic understanding and advanced security analysis. Developers can make informed decisions based on specific requirements and objectives of the project and choose the best tools. Prioritizing code quality can help you develop resilient and successful software products.

However, according to our experience and testing results, Zevo, with advanced code quality features, is the best choice for new developers as well as experienced developers. Not only it is a budget-friendly code quality tool, but it also meets all coding requirements.