liveBook · Manning

Review Board

As explained in "Looks Good to Me"

An open-source web-based code-review tool that can be self-hosted or consumed as a hosted service.

Review Board is an open-source, web-based code-review tool for teams choosing between self-hosted infrastructure and a hosted service. It supports repositories using Git, Subversion, and Mercurial. section 3.2.2

Review Board supports several review workflows:

  • Pre-commit reviews for examining changes before they are committed. section 3.2.2
  • Post-commit reviews for examining changes after they are committed. section 3.2.2
  • Side-by-side image diffs for reviewing image changes. section 3.2.2

Choosing with the team

Shortlist Review Board alongside other tools, then use a free plan or trial to test whether its review workflows and hosting model fit the team. section 3.2.2

Table 3.2 Comparison of code review tools
Tool / Platform
VCS support
Pricing tiers
Scalability
Pros
Cons
GitHub
Git
Free and paid plan
Good for all team sizes
Free basic plan, widely used, easy to learn, good integration with GitHub ecosystem
Limited review features in the free plan
GitLab
Git
Free and paid plan
Good for all team sizes
Feature-rich, good value for open source projects
Can be overwhelming for some teams; limited self-hosting features in the free tier
Gerrit
Git
Free and paid plan
Good for large codebases
Open source, highly scalable, advanced features for code reviews
Requires self-hosting, steeper learning curve, and Java to run
Crucible
Git, SVN, and Mercurial, CVS, Perforce
Paid only
Good for large teams
Security and quality focus, powerful integrations with other Atlassian tools, and advanced code quality checks
Paid only; might be too much for smaller teams
Rhodecode
Git, SVN, Mercurial
Paid only
Good for large organizations
Open source, self-hosted, highly customizable workflows; supports multiple VCS
Paid only; may require more technical expertise to set up and manage; less active development community
Collaborator
Git, SVN, Mercurial, CVS, TFS, Perforce
Paid only
Good for small/ medium teams
Strong SVN support, advanced features like code search and integrations; self-hosting option
Paid plans only; aging interface
Review Board
Git, SVN, Mercurial, CVS, Perforce, Azure DevOps/TFS, Bazaar, HCL VersionVault
Free and paid plan
Good for all team sizes
Mature tool with flexible deployment options (self-hosted/web-hosted), strong access control features, open source, customizable, and good community support
Paid plans can be expensive; some features require paid plugins

Compare Review Board with alternative code-review tools across version-control support, pricing, scalability, strengths, and limitations. section 3.2.2

How "Looks Good to Me" covers it

How deep it goes
Defines the tool and highlights review capabilities, but stops short of operational setup or detailed workflow instructions.
Examples
Uses pre-commit reviews, post-commit reviews, and side-by-side image diffs as concrete capabilities.
What you can do after
Evaluate Review Board through team trials against repository, hosting, and review-workflow needs.
How it connects
Connects code review with Git, Subversion, Mercurial, pre-commit reviews, post-commit reviews, and image diffs.

Related concepts

This explainer was generated by Manning's knowledge graph from the text of "Looks Good to Me". The section links point to the parts of the book it draws on.