- grep: Traditional command-line text search utility, widely available.
- sift: Modern, fast, supports complex searches with an intuitive interface.
- ack: Optimized for programmers, great for searching through codebases.
- ag (The Silver Searcher): Focused on speed and efficiency, especially in large codebases.
- ripgrep (rg): Extremely fast, respects
.gitignore, offers powerful regex support. - git grep: Tightly integrated with Git, excels in searching within repositories.
- ugrep: Extremely versatile and feature-rich, offers advanced regex and Unicode support.
- The Platinum Searcher (pt): Fast and efficient, particularly for large codebases, simple to use.
| No | Criteria | grep Score | sift Score | ack Score | ag Score | ripgrep Score | git grep Score | ugrep Score | pt Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Speed | 75 | 85 | 70 | 90 | 95 | 85 | 90 | 80 |
| 2 | Ease of Use | 80 | 90 | 85 | 85 | 90 | 80 | 85 | 85 |
| 3 | Regular Expression Support | 70 | 90 | 80 | 80 | 90 | 75 | 95 | 80 |
| 4 | Recursive Search | 60 | 90 | 85 | 90 | 95 | 80 | 90 | 85 |
| 5 | Binary File Handling | 50 | 80 | 60 | 70 | 85 | 70 | 80 | 70 |
| 6 | Customizability | 80 | 85 | 75 | 75 | 80 | 70 | 85 | 75 |
| 7 | File Type Filtering | 40 | 90 | 80 | 85 | 90 | 80 | 85 | 80 |
| 8 | Parallel Processing | 30 | 90 | 50 | 85 | 95 | 75 | 90 | 80 |
| 9 | Availability/Compatibility | 100 | 70 | 65 | 70 | 80 | 85 | 70 | 65 |
| 10 | Community Support | 90 | 75 | 70 | 75 | 85 | 80 | 75 | 70 |
| Average Score | 67.5 | 84.5 | 72.0 | 80.5 | 88.5 | 78.0 | 84.5 | 77.0 |