What are the best Python code linters?

Question

22

Options
Considered

135

User
Recs.

Nov 12, 2021

Last
Updated

Here’s the Deal

The Best 1 of 22 OptionsWhy?

Best Python code linters	Price	Initial Release	Python Versions Supported
92 Pylint	FREE	May 19, 2003	3.5+
-- Flake8	FREE	February 15, 2010	2.7 / 3.4+
-- Pyright	FREE	March 10, 2019	3.6+
-- mypy	FREE	October 28, 2012	3.5+
-- pyflakes	FREE	-	-

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21 Other Options Considered

Flake8

Top Pro

One-stop-shop static diagnostics

Gives you static syntax checking, pep8 compliance and code complexity with a single invocation. See More

Top Con

Is not supported on pyCharm (who gives a FUCK)

There is no integration with pyCharm See More

zgoda's Experience

Plenty of plugins to extend basic functionality, simple configuration that can be done in both config files and in command line. See More

Specs

Initial Release:February 15, 2010

Latest Release Date:October 28, 2019

Python Versions Supported:2.7 / 3.4+

Static/Dynamic Analysis?:Static

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Top Pro

Allows usage of and writing of plugins

Flake8 has the ability to run thrid-party plugins, including plugins you can write yourself. Here you can find a few useful plugins. See More

Top Con

Underlying tools are fixed

Although Flake8 wraps multiple tools, it is not flexible in which tools it wraps. If you don't agree with the rules implemented in PyFlakes and pep8, then you have to drop all 3 wrapped tools to use something else like PyLint. See More

Top Pro

Can ignore specific errors on specific lines

The # noqa: comment allows you to ignore a warning for just a single line. See More

Top Pro

Wraps multiple analysis tools

Flake8 is a wrapper around PyFlakes, pep8, and McCabe Complexity analysis. See More

Top Pro

Great for beginners

Easy to setup and use for beginners, since it gives few false positives. See More

See All

mypy

Initial Release:October 28, 2012

Python Versions Supported:3.5+

Latest Release Date:March 10, 2020

Static/Dynamic Analysis?:Both (Hybrid)

Pylama

Initial Release:August 12, 2012

Python Versions Supported:2.7 / 3.4+

Latest Release Date:April 10, 2019

Static/Dynamic Analysis?:Static

Black

Top Con

Can't use single quotes

Specs

Initial Release:March 11, 2018

Python Versions Supported:3.6+

Latest Release Date:October 28, 2019

Static/Dynamic Analysis?:Static

See All Specs

pylava

Initial Release:Sep 13, 2017

Python Versions Supported:2.7+ / 3.5+

Latest Release Date:Sep 28, 2020

pycodestyle

Initial Release:April 6, 2012

Python Versions Supported:2.7+ / 3.5+

Latest Release Date:March 16, 2021

AutoPep8

Top Pro

Recursive

YAPF (Yet Another Python Formatter)

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pydocstyle

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coala

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Pyre

Top Pro

Made by Facebook

Backed by a highly skilled development team and held to a high standard for use on large codebases. See More

Vulture

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Prospector

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isort

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Bandit

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Radon

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McCabe

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score 66 · Accepted Answer

Pylint

Top Pro

Great documentation

The documentation is thorough and complete. They provide information for any kind of warning that Pylint may raise and how to deal with them, enable/disable them and how to interpret them. See More

Top Con

Doesn't work well with decorated functions

Can produce false positive errors when accessing attributes of decorated functions, because Pylint mistakes them as regular functions despite the explicit decorators above function signatures. See More

Specs

Initial Release:May 19, 2003

Python Versions Supported:3.5+

Latest Release Date:November 13, 2019

Static/Dynamic Analysis?:Static

See All Specs

Top Pro

Full, detailed reports

Pylint gives very detailed reports of your code. It even provides ASCII tables with detailed statistics about the results. Data for the previous and current code execution is also available with the difference, allowing you to easily see the progress that you have made. See More

Top Con

May need to compile from source to install it correctly

There are some dependencies from Logilab that Pylint needs. They can easily be found in the README but trying to install them with easy_install can yield some problems with unresolved dependencies. See More

Top Pro

Configurable

Pylint has a configuration file which can be tweaked to choose what kind of warning messages you want. This way you can choose to opt out of receiving warnings that you may consider useless. See More

Top Pro

Fine-grained control

In addition to the ability to enable or disable warnings, Pylint also gives the developer a great degree of control through command line options. These range from regular expressions to enforce naming conventions to various settings to watch for complexity issues. See More

Top Pro

Easily enable or disable a particular message

Each check in pylint has a unique id, so you can choose to disable or enable that particular message in subsequent executions. Just run -enable-msg or -disable-msg and the message id. See More

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The Best 1 of 22 OptionsWhy?

My Recommendation for Pylint

My Recommendation for Pylint

Great documentation

Doesn't work well with decorated functions

Full, detailed reports

May need to compile from source to install it correctly

Configurable

Fine-grained control

Easily enable or disable a particular message

21 Other Options Considered

My Recommendation for Flake8

My Recommendation for Flake8

One-stop-shop static diagnostics

Is not supported on pyCharm (who gives a FUCK)

Allows usage of and writing of plugins

Underlying tools are fixed

Can ignore specific errors on specific lines

Wraps multiple analysis tools

Great for beginners

My Recommendation for Pyright

My Recommendation for Pyright

Available in any text editor that implements Microsoft's Language Server Protocol

Does fast, asynchronous type checking

Made by Microsoft

My Recommendation for mypy

My Recommendation for mypy

My Recommendation for pyflakes

My Recommendation for pyflakes

Integration with *Spyder* & *PyDev*

Easy installation

Very fast

My Recommendation for Pylama

My Recommendation for Pylama

My Recommendation for Black

My Recommendation for Black

Can't use single quotes

My Recommendation for pylava

My Recommendation for pylava

My Recommendation for pycodestyle

My Recommendation for pycodestyle

My Recommendation for AutoPep8

My Recommendation for AutoPep8

Recursive

My Recommendation for YAPF (Yet Another Python Formatter)

My Recommendation for YAPF (Yet Another Python Formatter)

My Recommendation for pydocstyle

My Recommendation for pydocstyle

My Recommendation for coala

My Recommendation for coala

My Recommendation for Pyre

My Recommendation for Pyre

Made by Facebook

My Recommendation for Vulture

My Recommendation for Vulture

My Recommendation for Prospector

My Recommendation for Prospector

My Recommendation for isort

My Recommendation for isort

My Recommendation for Bandit

My Recommendation for Bandit

My Recommendation for Radon

My Recommendation for Radon

My Recommendation for McCabe

My Recommendation for McCabe

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Integration with Spyder & PyDev