ESLint vs Hound vs Prettier

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ESLint

29.1K
13.4K
+ 1
28
Hound

42
47
+ 1
14
Prettier

7.1K
821
+ 1
7

ESLint vs Hound vs Prettier: What are the differences?

# Introduction
In web development, tools like ESLint, Hound, and Prettier play a significant role in maintaining and improving code quality.

1. **Integration with IDEs**: ESLint can be seamlessly integrated with popular IDEs like Visual Studio Code and Sublime Text, providing real-time feedback to developers as they write code. Hound and Prettier, on the other hand, are often used as standalone tools or integrated into the CI/CD pipeline for automated code review.
2. **Rule Configuration**: ESLint offers extensive customization options through its rule configuration, allowing developers to tailor the linting rules based on their specific coding standards and requirements. Hound and Prettier come with pre-defined rule sets that might be less flexible but offer a quicker setup for maintaining code consistency.
3. **Error vs. Formatting**: ESLint primarily focuses on identifying and fixing potential syntax errors, code smells, and best practices violations. Hound and Prettier, however, are more focused on enforcing formatting conventions and code styling guidelines, ensuring uniformity in code presentation across the codebase.
4. **Javascript vs. Multi-language**: ESLint is specifically designed for linting JavaScript code, providing advanced analysis and suggestions for improving code quality in JavaScript projects. Hound supports multiple programming languages beyond JavaScript, including Ruby, Go, Swift, and more, making it versatile for teams working with diverse tech stacks. Prettier, on the other hand, is language-agnostic and can be used for formatting code in various languages like HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and more.
5. **Auto-fixing Capabilities**: ESLint has built-in support for automatically fixing many of the identified issues in the code, helping developers quickly address common problems and improve code quality. Hound and Prettier, while great for identifying issues, might require manual intervention to apply suggested changes.
6. **Community Support and Adoption**: ESLint boasts a large and active community of developers contributing to its ecosystem, ensuring regular updates, bug fixes, and support for the latest JavaScript language features. Hound and Prettier, while popular tools, might not have the same level of community backing or feature updates at the same pace as ESLint.

In Summary, ESLint provides extensive rule customization and IDE integration for JavaScript code analysis, while Hound offers multi-language support and Prettier focuses on code formatting across various languages.
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Pros of ESLint
Pros of Hound
Pros of Prettier
  • 8
    Consistent javascript - opinions don't matter anymore
  • 6
    Free
  • 6
    IDE Integration
  • 4
    Customizable
  • 2
    Focuses code review on quality not style
  • 2
    Broad ecosystem of support & users
  • 4
    Comments on style so I don't have to
  • 3
    Easy configuration
  • 3
    Fast
  • 2
    Free for OSS
  • 2
    Inline comments
  • 2
    Customizable
  • 1
    Open Source
  • 1
    Atom/VSCode package
  • 1
    Follows the Ruby Style Guide by default
  • 1
    Runs offline
  • 1
    Completely free

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What is ESLint?

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

What is Hound?

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.

What is Prettier?

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.

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What tools integrate with ESLint?
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What are some alternatives to ESLint, Hound, and Prettier?
TSLint
An extensible static analysis tool that checks TypeScript code for readability, maintainability, and functionality errors. It is widely supported across modern editors & build systems and can be customized with your own lint rules, configurations, and formatters.
JSLint
It is a static code analysis tool used in software development for checking if JavaScript source code complies with coding rules. It is provided primarily as a browser-based web application accessible through their domain, but there are also command-line adaptations.
JSHint
It is a community-driven tool to detect errors and potential problems in JavaScript code. It is open source and can easily adjust in the environment you expect your code to execute.
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.
Babel
Babel will turn your ES6+ code into ES5 friendly code, so you can start using it right now without waiting for browser support.
See all alternatives