ScanCode is a suite of utilities used to scan a codebase for license, copyright and other interesting information that can be discovered in files.
Cost / License
- Free
- Open Source
Platforms
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux

spdx-tool is described as 'Scans the source files to identify licenses used and it allows to update them in order to use the SPDX license format' and is an app in the security & privacy category. There are six alternatives to spdx-tool for Linux, Mac, Windows and Web-based. The best spdx-tool alternative is ScanCode, which is both free and Open Source. Other great apps like spdx-tool are Slic, Ninka, Licensee and FOSSology.
ScanCode is a suite of utilities used to scan a codebase for license, copyright and other interesting information that can be discovered in files.

Slic scans a codebase and identifies the license of each file. It can be extended to identify new licenses or change its detection of existing ones.
Ninka is a lightweight license identification tool for source code. It is sentence-based, and provides a simple way to identify open source licenses in a source code file. It is capable of identifying several dozen different licenses (and their variations).
FOSSology is an open source license compliance software system and toolkit. As a toolkit you can run license, copyright and export control scans from the command line. As a system, a database and web ui are provided to give you a compliance workflow.
FOSSA offers automated license scanning, dependency analysis and reports at each commit. Get a process up an running in 60 seconds, without slowing down development.