Best PHPMD Alternatives in 2026
Updated
20 apps from linters ranked against PHPMD on the same published basis.
- 1PHPMD vs Biome
- 2PHPMD vs Ruff
- 3PHPMD vs PMD
- 4PHPMD vs Astral
- 5PHPMD vs golangci-lint
- 6PHPMD vs ESLint
- 7PHPMD vs Stylelint
- 8PHPMD vs detekt
- 9PHPMD vs ShellCheck
- 10PHPMD vs SQLFluff
- 11PHPMD vs Cppcheck
- 12PHPMD vs Staticcheck
- 13PHPMD vs clang-tidy
- 14PHPMD vs SwiftLint
- 15PHPMD vs Checkstyle
- 16PHPMD vs Clippy
- 17PHPMD vs Credo
- 19PHPMD vs PHP_CodeSniffer
- 20PHPMD vs HLint
- 21PHPMD vs revive
PHPMD alternatives compared
| # | App | Score | Free plan | From | Runs on |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Biome | 8.1 | Free plan | Free | Browser, Linux, Mac, Web, Windows |
| 2 | Ruff | 8.1 | Free plan | Free | Linux, Mac, self-hosted, Web, Windows |
| 3 | PMD | 8.1 | Free plan | Free | Linux, Mac, self-hosted, Windows |
| 4 | Astral | 8.0 | Free plan | Free | Linux, Mac, Windows |
| 5 | golangci-lint | 7.8 | Free plan | Free | Linux, Mac, self-hosted, Windows |
| 6 | ESLint | 7.8 | Free plan | Free | API, Browser, self-hosted |
| 7 | Stylelint | 7.5 | Free plan | Free | API, Linux, Mac, Windows |
| 8 | detekt | 7.2 | Free plan | Free | Linux, Mac, Windows |
| 9 | ShellCheck | 6.7 | No | — | Web, Windows, Mac, Linux |
| 10 | SQLFluff | 6.7 | Free plan | Free | API, Linux, Mac, self-hosted, Windows |
| 11 | Cppcheck | 6.7 | Free plan | Free | Linux, Mac, self-hosted, Windows |
| 12 | Staticcheck | 6.5 | No | — | Windows, Mac, Linux |
| 13 | clang-tidy | 6.4 | No | — | — |
| 14 | SwiftLint | 6.4 | No | — | Windows, Mac, Linux |
| 15 | Checkstyle | 6.2 | No | — | — |
| 16 | Clippy | 6.1 | No | — | Windows, Mac, Linux |
| 17 | Credo | 6.1 | No | — | — |
| 19 | PHP_CodeSniffer | 5.9 | No | — | — |
| 20 | HLint | 5.8 | No | — | Windows, Mac, Linux |
| 21 | revive | 5.8 | No | — | — |
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Questions about PHPMD alternatives
What is the best alternative to PHPMD?
Biome, number 1 in linters with a score of 8.1 out of 10. The others here: Ruff, PMD, Astral and 16 more.
What is the best free alternative to PHPMD?
Biome is the best-ranked alternative with a free plan. 10 of the 20 alternatives here publish a free plan on their own pricing pages.
How are these alternatives ranked?
Ranked mobile-first: a phone app alongside the web or desktop product, a free tier and the depth of its documentation.