ScanCode Toolkit

ScanCode Toolkit is ranked #5 of 27 in open source license compliance software on The Geeks Club. It runs on API, Linux, macOS, Self-hosted, Windows. There is a free plan.

ScanCode Toolkit plans and pricing

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ScanCode Toolkit Free Free software code scanning tool scancode-toolkit.readthedocs.io · 2 Oct 2026

Compared on open source license compliance software

Free plan: Yes
Policy enforcement: advisory
Attribution reports: Yes
Deployment options: on-premise
Source scan methods: multiple

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ScanCode Toolkit

Purpose: ScanCode Toolkit scans codebases to detect code origin, copyrights, licenses, vulnerabilities, packages and dependencies.
Use modes: It can be used as a command-line tool or as a library in an application.
License detection: License detection searches an index of license texts and rules for matches in extracted file text.
Archive scanning: The scanning process extracts files recursively from archives and extracts text from binary files when needed.
Package support: It supports a wide variety of package manifests, lockfiles and package datafiles containing package and dependency information.
Output formats: Scan results can be written as JSON, YAML, JSON Lines, HTML, SPDX, Debian copyright, or CycloneDX; CSV is marked deprecated.
Integration: JSON scan results can be consumed by ScanCode Workbench and other applications that accept ScanCode result data.
Extensibility: Plugins can extend ScanCode at different stages, and users can add license data through external plugins.
Installation: Installation options include release archives, Docker, source, pip, and Fedora’s repository.
Platform requirements: The documentation lists Linux, macOS and Windows as tested platforms and specifies 64-bit operating systems and Python requirements.
Support: The project directs users to its community Slack and GitHub discussions for questions and challenges.
Legal limitation: The scan output says ScanCode is provided as-is without warranties and that its content should not be used as legal advice.
Maker history: nexB says it was founded in 2003 by Michael J. Herzog, Philippe Ombrédanne and François Granade.
Founded: 2003
Price from: Free

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Where it ranks on The Geeks Club

Best Open Source License Compliance Software in 2026#5 of 27

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Sources

scancode-toolkit.readthedocs.io/en/latest/· checked 2 Oct 2026
scancode-toolkit.readthedocs.io/en/latest/explanation/scancode-license-· checked 2 Oct 2026
scancode-toolkit.readthedocs.io/en/latest/reference/scancode-supported-· checked 2 Oct 2026
scancode-toolkit.readthedocs.io/en/latest/reference/scancode-cli/cli-ou· checked 2 Oct 2026
scancode-toolkit.readthedocs.io/en/latest/getting-started/installation/· checked 2 Oct 2026
nexb.com/about/· checked 2 Oct 2026
scancode-toolkit.readthedocs.io· checked 28 Sept 2026