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.
Search | Sourcegraph Code Search | GitHub 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 searching | 75+ languages | 20 languages |
Case-sensitive search | ||
Comprehensive search results | 500 results by default, more can be added via filter | 100 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 |
Navigation | Sourcegraph Code Search | GitHub code search |
---|---|---|
Search-based code navigation | 40 languages | 20 languages |
Precise code navigation: language support | 11 languages | 2 languages |
Precise code navigation: technical details | SCIP-based with 100% accuracy | Heuristics-based, high accuracy with some false positives |
Precise code navigation: setup | Opt-in | No setup required |
Precise code navigation: cross-repository |
Large scale code changes | Sourcegraph Code Search | GitHub 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 |
Insights | Sourcegraph Code Search | GitHub 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 |
API | Sourcegraph Code Search | GitHub code search |
---|---|---|
GraphQL API | ||
Stream API |
Extensions | Sourcegraph Code Search | GitHub code search |
---|---|---|
IDE | ||
Integration with documentation for knowledge sharing |
Last updated: 2024-04-16