Coveralls

Overview

Coveralls analyzes test coverage and turns it into project summaries, build history, and pull-request reports for software teams. It is best suited to teams that want coverage visible across CI builds and branches, with checks that can influence merges. The trade-off is a tiered cloud price tied to private-repository counts, with higher-capacity and enterprise options for larger organizations.

Key features

The dashboard tracks project coverage percentages and changes over time, while repository views can drill from aggregate results through sub-projects and files to individual lines. That combination helps teams spot both broad trends and uncovered code without relying on a single headline percentage. Coveralls handles line and branch coverage, and supports report formats including LCOV, SimpleCov, Cobertura, JaCoCo, Gcov, Clover XML, and Pytest-Cov.

Build history records coverage across builds and branches, including pull requests. Pull-request summaries and annotations make changes visible in code review, and coverage criteria can be used to allow or block merges. Teams can also send coverage-change notifications to Slack or webhooks. These features make Coveralls more useful as part of a review workflow than as a standalone report viewer.

Coveralls says it works with any CI service and offers more than 30 community integrations, along with a GitHub Action and CircleCI Orb. Supported languages include .NET, C/C++, Go, Java, JavaScript, PHP, Python, Ruby, Scala, and others. Its API can add repositories and return recent-build statistics, which may suit teams automating repository management or reporting.

For cloud use, Coveralls says it reads code through an SCM OAuth token, accesses repositories read-only, and does not store or cache private code. Detailed file coverage is retained for 12 months on paid repositories and six months on public repositories; aggregated build-level coverage remains indefinitely. Enterprise on-premises installations can run inside a customer's existing security controls and without outbound network access.

Pricing

The Open Source plan is free for open-source projects. Coveralls also says open-source and public repositories are always free, making it a straightforward fit for public work. For private repositories, the Starter plan costs $10 a month, billed $10/mo, for one private repository and includes a 30-day free trial. That is the lowest-cost entry, but its single-repository cap is restrictive for teams with multiple private projects.

The Org plan is $50 a month, billed $50/mo, for 10 private repositories and unlimited users; Org+ is $100 a month, billed $100/mo, for 20 private repositories and unlimited users. Pro costs $200 a month, billed $200/mo, for 40 private repositories and unlimited users. Unlimited costs $400 a month, billed $400/mo, for unlimited private repositories and users. The step-up is chiefly repository capacity, so teams should match the tier to the number of private repositories they need to cover.

A Usage add-on costs $30 a month, billed $30/mo, and adds 3,000 uploads per month with priority processing; it is repository-scoped and combines with any Cloud Plan. The Support add-on costs $200 a month, billed $200/mo, for premium support, priority response, and live chat, and also combines with any Cloud Plan. These add-ons can raise the cost substantially, so they make most sense when upload volume or support response is a real operational requirement.

Cloud Premium costs $800 a month, billed $800.00/mo, for unlimited private repositories, premium support, custom SLA terms, and multi-organization billing. Enterprise Cloud is $35 a month, billed $35/user/mo, with unlimited organizations, repositories, and users, secure private infrastructure, guaranteed performance, and premium support; it requires at least 40 seats, or $1,400/mo. That minimum makes it an enterprise-scale commitment rather than an upgrade for a small team. The pricing page also offers a $200/month Support add-on.

Platforms

Coveralls supports API, Linux, self-hosted, and web use. The self-hosted option is especially relevant to organizations that need coverage analysis to operate inside their own security controls; the cloud option offers repository access through SCM OAuth with read-only analysis.

Who it's for

Coveralls is a strong fit for teams that want coverage trends, pull-request reporting, and merge gates integrated into CI, especially when they manage several private repositories or public open-source projects. Public projects can use it without a subscription, while private teams can scale from a single-repository Starter plan through organization and enterprise tiers. It is less compelling for a private project that needs only a local coverage report, or for teams unwilling to pay according to repository capacity and add-ons.

Pros and cons

• Pros: Pull-request summaries, annotations, and coverage gates bring results into code review, where teams can act on them.
• Pros: History across branches plus file- and line-level detail serves both trend monitoring and targeted investigation.
• Pros: Public and open-source repositories are free, and the cloud service offers broad CI, language, and report-format support.
• Cons: The $10/mo Starter plan covers only one private repository, so even small multi-project teams need a higher tier.
• Cons: Upload and premium-support needs carry separate monthly add-on costs, while Enterprise Cloud has a 40-seat minimum.
• Cons: Detailed file coverage has finite retention—12 months for paid repositories and six months for public repositories—even though aggregate build coverage is retained indefinitely.

Alternatives

Codecov is worth comparing if its free Developer plan's allowance of up to 250 private-repository uploads and unlimited public repositories suits your use; it also has a maximum of one user for open-source use, or unlimited users for private use. For a free tool with no license tiers, keys, or usage limits, choose OpenClover. ReportGenerator is another freemium option, with a 10-day full-access trial and a free plan for basic features.

For a free, Ruby-specific coverage tool, consider SimpleCov. Python teams looking for an open-source coverage tool can consider Coverage.py. Coverlet is a free alternative for modern .NET SDK-style projects. Go users who need a command-line formatter included with their Go installation can choose gofmt. gcovr is another free option for Linux, macOS, and Windows.

See the Test Coverage Tools category for more options.

Verdict

Choose Coveralls if your team wants coverage to inform pull-request review and merge decisions, with build trends and code-level detail alongside those checks. Its free public-project support and CI breadth are clear strengths, but private teams should account for repository caps, add-ons, and retention before committing. Teams needing only a free local tool, or a small private team with several repositories, may find a simpler alternative a better fit.