Sourcegraph vs GitHub code search

GitHub code search lets users search and navigate organization and open source code and supports searching code across GitHub using regular expressions, boolean operations, specialized qualifiers, and symbol search.

GitHub code search is available to all users but comes with limitations. Not all code is indexed, search results are restricted to 100 results, and it does not support multi-line searching. It does not offer comprehensive search across branches, nor offers granular search parameters like case-sensitive search. GitHub code search is unable to make and track large-scale changes across repositories and code hosts or transform code into a queryable database to create custom, visual dashboards to track migrations, vulnerabilities, code health, and other metrics.

TL;DR: GitHub code search is a good choice for individuals or small teams operating with a small codebase looking to find code, issues, or pull requests with simple search queries. Sourcegraph Code Search is a better option for organizations with a large number of repositories or a large and complex monorepo, and are looking for more sophisticated and accurate ways to search and navigate all of their code. Sourcegraph Code Search also offers enterprises a way to make large-scale changes and track insights across their codebase at scale. For example, you can read how Nutanix used Sourcegraph Code Search to identify and fix every instance of the Log4j vulnerability.

VS
Sourcegraph Cody Logo
GitHub Copilot Logo
SearchSourcegraph Code SearchGitHub code search
Search across multiple code hosts
Multi-line search
Literal search
Regular expression search
Comprehensive search across all branches
Commit diff search
Commit message search
Symbol searching75+ languages20 languages
Case-sensitive search
Comprehensive search results500 results by default, more can be added via filter100 results max
Search across issues, pull requests, and discussions
Search jobs
Time and date filtering on commits
Visual search aggregation charts
Scope search to repository groups with search contexts
Refine and narrow down search query with filters
NavigationSourcegraph Code SearchGitHub code search
Search-based code navigation40 languages20 languages
Precise code navigation: language support11 languages2 languages
Precise code navigation: technical detailsSCIP-based with 100% accuracyHeuristics-based, high accuracy with some false positives
Precise code navigation: setupOpt-inNo setup required
Precise code navigation: cross-repository
Large scale code changesSourcegraph Code SearchGitHub code search
Make large-scale code changes across many repositories and code hosts, and track the status of bulk codebase changes through visual dashboards and burndown charts
InsightsSourcegraph Code SearchGitHub code search
Codebase insights: Transform code into a queryable database to create custom, visual dashboards to track migrations, vulnerabilities, versions, code health, adoption, ownership, and other metrics
APISourcegraph Code SearchGitHub code search
GraphQL API
Stream API
ExtensionsSourcegraph Code SearchGitHub code search
IDE
Integration with documentation for knowledge sharing

Last updated: 2024-04-16

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