dependency-cruiser vs Rev-dep

dependency-cruiser validates dependencies against custom forbidden rules and draws dependency graphs. rev-dep covers the same validation with purpose-built checks and runs faster - but dependency-cruiser is also a graph visualizer, which rev-dep is not.

At a glance

	dependency-cruiser	Rev-dep
Primary focus	dependency rules + visualization	dependency hygiene + architecture
Runtime	Node	Go - single parallel pass (faster)
Circular / orphan detection	yes	yes
Path-to-path forbidden rules	yes (generic from/to)	yes (boundaries + restricted imports)
Unused / missing dependencies	partial	yes
Unused exports	no	yes
Graph visualization (dot/mermaid/HTML)	yes	no
Config	.dependency-cruiser.js (regex rules)	rev-dep.config.jsonc (named checks, globs)

Where rev-dep is stronger

• Named checks instead of hand-written rules. Boundaries, restricted imports, circular, and orphan files are dedicated detectors rather than generic from/to rules.
• Broader hygiene - it also detects unused/missing dependencies and unused exports.
• Speed across large monorepos.

Where dependency-cruiser may still fit

Its headline feature is visualization - rendering the graph as SVG, mermaid, or HTML. rev-dep answers reachability as text via the exploratory toolkit but produces no images. If you rely on the diagrams, keep dependency-cruiser for that.

Which should you choose?

• Need dependency-graph diagrams? dependency-cruiser (optionally alongside rev-dep for the checks).
• Want fast, named architecture checks plus unused-code/dependency detection in one config? rev-dep.

Migrating

See Migrating from dependency-cruiser to translate your forbidden rules into rev-dep checks.