PMD

7.0easy start · #14 of 39
in Static Analysis Tools

Free to practise onyes
Free trialnot on record
Well documentedyes
Runs where you workyes

Runs on Linux, Mac, self-hosted, Windows.

PMD is ranked #14 of 39 in static analysis tools on The Geeks Club. It runs on Linux, macOS, Self-hosted, Windows. There is a free plan.

PMD plans and pricing

All plans

PMD Free BSD-style license · downloadable static code analyzer pmd.github.io · 2 Oct 2026

Compared on static analysis tools

Free plan: Yes

Best PMD alternatives

See all 12

Qodana 0 of 4 in the starter kit Lesson 17.9 CodeScene 0 of 4 in the starter kit Lesson 27.8 Cppcheck 0 of 4 in the starter kit Lesson 37.8 Codacy 0 of 4 in the starter kit Lesson 47.7 Gitar 0 of 4 in the starter kit Lesson 57.7 MATLAB Grader 0 of 4 in the starter kit Lesson 67.4

The record

Purpose: PMD is an extensible multilanguage static code analyzer that finds programming flaws such as unused variables, empty catch blocks and unnecessary object creation.
Rules: PMD includes 400+ built-in rules and supports custom rules written in Java or XPath.
Languages: PMD supports Java, JavaScript, Salesforce Apex and Visualforce, Kotlin, Swift, Modelica, PL/SQL, Apache Velocity, JSP, WSDL, Maven POM, HTML, XML and XSL; Scala is supported without Scala rules.
Copy-paste detection: PMD includes CPD, a copy-paste detector distributed with PMD.
Build integrations: PMD can run as Maven, Ant, Gradle and bld build operations or from the command line.
Installation: PMD requires Java 8 or above and is distributed as a ZIP archive containing PMD and CPD.
Operating systems: The documentation provides execution instructions for Linux/Unix and Windows, using pmd or pmd.bat.
CI integration: PMD provides a GitHub Action that runs custom rulesets, creates SARIF reports and can fail builds based on violation counts.
CI ecosystem: The project documents integrations for Atlassian Bamboo, GitHub Actions, GitLab and Jenkins.
Other integrations: The project lists integrations including Codacy, Codiga, Tencent Cloud Code Analysis, MegaLinter and a SonarQube PMD plugin.
Support: Users can ask questions through Stack Overflow, GitHub Discussions, Gitter or PMD Guru at Gurubase, and report bugs through GitHub issues.
License: The PMD repository identifies its license as BSD Style.
Security reporting: PMD directs security issue reports to its SECURITY.md policy.
Release verification: Since PMD 7.11.0, binary distribution files have GPG signatures for download verification.
Price from: Free

Where it ranks on The Geeks Club

Best Static Analysis Tools in 2026#14 of 39
Best Linters in 2026#4 of 33
Best Code Clone Detection Tools in 2026#6 of 23

Is PMD yours?

Claim it for free: prove the domain, then correct facts, plans and screenshots. An editor reviews every change.

Claim it free Promote PMD

Sources

pmd.github.io/pmd/index.html· checked 1 Oct 2026
pmd.github.io/pmd/pmd_userdocs_installation.html· checked 1 Oct 2026
pmd.github.io/pmd/pmd_userdocs_tools_ci.html· checked 1 Oct 2026
pmd.github.io/pmd/pmd_userdocs_tools.html· checked 1 Oct 2026
github.com/pmd/pmd· checked 1 Oct 2026
pmd.github.io/pmd/pmd_about_security.html· checked 1 Oct 2026
pmd.github.io/pmd/pmd_userdocs_signed_releases.html· checked 1 Oct 2026
pmd.github.io/pmd/pmd_about_support_lifecycle.html· checked 1 Oct 2026
pmd.github.io· checked 2 Oct 2026
docs.pmd-code.org/latest/pmd_userdocs_tools_ide_plugins.h· checked 2 Oct 2026
docs.pmd-code.org/latest/pmd_userdocs_tools_ci.html· checked 2 Oct 2026