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  1. Stackups
  2. DevOps
  3. Code Review
  4. Code Review
  5. Hound vs Prettier

Hound vs Prettier

OverviewDecisionsComparisonAlternatives

Overview

Hound
Hound
Stacks41
Followers47
Votes14
Prettier
Prettier
Stacks13.2K
Followers1.3K
Votes7
GitHub Stars51.1K
Forks4.6K

Hound vs Prettier: What are the differences?

# Introduction

Here we will outline the key differences between Hound and Prettier.

1. **Integration with Linters**: Hound is primarily focused on enforcing consistent style rules defined by linters like RuboCop, ESLint, etc., whereas Prettier is a code formatter that focuses on formatting code without enforcing specific style rules. 
2. **Language Support**: Hound supports multiple programming languages, including Ruby, JavaScript, CSS, and more, while Prettier is mainly designed for JavaScript but also supports other languages with plugins.
3. **Customization Options**: Prettier allows for extensive customization through a variety of configuration options, while Hound is more limited in terms of customization and relies heavily on predefined style rules.
4. **Runtime Environment**: Hound requires an active connection to the internet to run its checks as it is a web-based service, while Prettier can be run offline as a standalone tool or integrated into various code editors.
5. **Focus on Code Formatting**: Prettier is laser-focused on code formatting and provides a minimalistic approach to ensure consistent formatting, while Hound offers a broader range of style checks beyond just formatting.
6. **Automatic Code Fixes**: Prettier can automatically fix many common code formatting issues, saving developers time, while Hound primarily focuses on detecting style violations and suggesting changes without automatically fixing them.

In Summary, Hound is more focused on enforcing style rules defined by linters across multiple languages, while Prettier is a code formatter with more customization options and a stronger emphasis on automatic code formatting. 

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Advice on Hound, Prettier

Alex
Alex

Software Engineer

Aug 7, 2020

Review

you don't actually have to choose between these tools as they have vastly different purposes. i think its more a matter of understanding how to use them.

while eslint and stylelint are used to notify you about code quality issues, to guide you to write better code, prettier automatically handles code formatting (without notifying me). nothing else.

prettier and eslint both officially discourage using the eslint-plugin-prettier way, as these tools actually do very different things. autofixing with linters on watch isnt a great idea either. auto-fixing should only be done intentionally. you're not alone though, as a lot of devs set this up wrong.

i encourage you to think about what problem you're trying to solve and configure accordingly.

for my teams i set it up like this:

  • eslint, stylelint, prettier locally installed for cli use and ide support
  • eslint config prettier (code formatting rules are not eslints business, so dont warn me about it)
  • vscode workspace config: format on save
  • separate npm scripts for linting, and formatting
  • precommit hooks (husky)

so you can easily integrate with gulp. its just js after all ;)

159k views159k
Comments

Detailed Comparison

Hound
Hound
Prettier
Prettier

Automated code review for GitHub pull requests. It comments on code quality and style issues, allowing you and your team to better review and maintain a clean codebase.

Prettier is an opinionated code formatter. It enforces a consistent style by parsing your code and re-printing it with its own rules that take the maximum line length into account, wrapping code when necessary.

Open source; Free for public repos; Automated reviews of GitHub pull requests;GitHub App
An opinionated code formatter; Supports many languages; Integrates with most editors; Has few options; You press save and code is formatted; No need to discuss style in code review; Saves you time and energy
Statistics
GitHub Stars
-
GitHub Stars
51.1K
GitHub Forks
-
GitHub Forks
4.6K
Stacks
41
Stacks
13.2K
Followers
47
Followers
1.3K
Votes
14
Votes
7
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 4
    Comments on style so I don't have to
  • 3
    Easy configuration
  • 3
    Fast
  • 2
    Free for OSS
  • 2
    Inline comments
Pros
  • 2
    Customizable
  • 1
    Atom/VSCode package
  • 1
    Open Source
  • 1
    Completely free
  • 1
    Runs offline
Integrations
ESLint
ESLint
GitHub
GitHub
SwiftLint
SwiftLint
RuboCop
RuboCop
Credo
Credo
GraphQL
GraphQL
JavaScript
JavaScript
TypeScript
TypeScript
Flow
Flow
Vue.js
Vue.js
AngularJS
AngularJS
markdown
markdown
YAML
YAML
Less
Less

What are some alternatives to Hound, Prettier?

Code Climate

Code Climate

After each Git push, Code Climate analyzes your code for complexity, duplication, and common smells to determine changes in quality and surface technical debt hotspots.

Codacy

Codacy

Codacy automates code reviews and monitors code quality on every commit and pull request on more than 40 programming languages reporting back the impact of every commit or PR, issues concerning code style, best practices and security.

Phabricator

Phabricator

Phabricator is a collection of open source web applications that help software companies build better software.

PullReview

PullReview

PullReview helps Ruby and Rails developers to develop new features cleanly, on-time, and with confidence by automatically reviewing their code.

Gerrit Code Review

Gerrit Code Review

Gerrit is a self-hosted pre-commit code review tool. It serves as a Git hosting server with option to comment incoming changes. It is highly configurable and extensible with default guarding policies, webhooks, project access control and more.

SonarQube

SonarQube

SonarQube provides an overview of the overall health of your source code and even more importantly, it highlights issues found on new code. With a Quality Gate set on your project, you will simply fix the Leak and start mechanically improving.

RuboCop

RuboCop

RuboCop is a Ruby static code analyzer. Out of the box it will enforce many of the guidelines outlined in the community Ruby Style Guide.

CodeFactor.io

CodeFactor.io

CodeFactor.io automatically and continuously tracks code quality with every GitHub or BitBucket commit and pull request, helping software developers save time in code reviews and efficiently tackle technical debt.

ESLint

ESLint

A pluggable and configurable linter tool for identifying and reporting on patterns in JavaScript. Maintain your code quality with ease.

Amazon CodeGuru

Amazon CodeGuru

It is a machine learning service for automated code reviews and application performance recommendations. It helps you find the most expensive lines of code that hurt application performance and keep you up all night troubleshooting, then gives you specific recommendations to fix or improve your code.

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