CppDepend vs NDepend

Question

Both CppDepend and NDepend are developed by the same company and seem to be based on the same codebase and share some features. I haven't found a side by side comparison site yet.

I work on several plain c# solutions without any c++ code at all but also have solutions that beside c# also contain c++ managed code and c++ native code.

Do I really need to buy both tools if I want the full feature set for all project types? Do need to open my mixed solutions with CppDepend and c#-only solutions with NDepend? It seems that NDepend can't analyse c++ projects but when I open the solution with CppDepends I lose some NPDepend features for my c# projects in the same solution. It would be nice if NDepend could load CppDepend as a plugin/extension, but that's not possible right?

Answer 1

NDepend analyzes any .NET/IL code, including the C++/CLI managed code (but not the unmanaged one). CppDepend analyzes only C++ code, on any C++ compliant platform.

While the tools share a lot of code, they are mutually exclusive and doesn't inter-operate in any way. Also, the tools share the same set of features.

If most of your code is .NET/IL code, NDepend should be fine for your needs.

If your code is 50/50 .NET and C++ unmanaged, you might need both tools.

It would be nice if NDepend could load CppDepend as a plugin/extension, but that's not possible right?

Right.