This blog post will touch on some of the best and most useful Firmware development tools. Before we begin, there are a few caveats to be aware of. The “Best” tools does not necessarily mean the “Newest as of August 2025”. There are new tools coming out all the time, however, just because they’re new doesn’t automatically make them useful or even good.
A firmware developer/project shouldn’t use 100’s of tools – that would be a nightmare to maintain and train new developers on. Instead, developers should look to find a subset of beneficial tools while preferring simplicity and ease of use when possible.
Some tools on this list may be new to the reader and some will likely be very familiar. Since this is geared towards Firmware development, we will focus on tools that support the most commonly used languages (Those being C, C++, and Assembly).
Criteria for Selecting Development Tools
- Improves productivity. This is of course rather abstract. One way to measure this is in terms of hours saved or bugs found.
- Widely used and has helpful documentation. There’s nothing worse than a “Cool” tool that you find in GitHub that has 2 lines of documentation.
- Consistently updated, secure, and good support. You never want to be in a situation where you’re a year into development and said tool goes end of life or won’t add support for new “xyz (whatever that may be)”. It’s important that when you find a bug you can submit a report and have confidence it will be addressed or have a workaround. You should also be using tools that don’t have security flaws which could expose company secrets.
- Integrates with other tools. A good tool should be able to be integrated relatively easily into a build process and/or be able to support add-ons.
- Cost. This is 100% project dependent. That being said, if two tools do exactly the same thing and one costs $100,000 and the other is free – you or your company are probably not using that $100,000 tool.
- Portability and Stability. Does it work on Windows, Mac, and Linux? Or is it confined to just one operating system? Does the tool crash all the time and cause build failures due to its unreliability? You don’t want a tool that forces developers to spend time debugging why it crashed.
- Does a job other tools can’t…and you need it. Sometimes you need that specialized tool to fill a hole in your development process – even if it invalidates the previous criteria.
Now that we have some selection criteria, let’s look at a list of tools that Firmware developers should take a look at in 2025.
| Tool | Category | Cost | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| Percepio Tracealyzer | RTOS Debug / RTOS Trace | $ | Provides a trace view into your RTOS showing timing analysis, context switches, custom events, queue sends/recieves, interrupts, etc. Tracealyzer works by providing a tracing library that integrates with the majority of available RTOS’s. The trace library must then be compiled into the existing code base and flashed onto the target device. (Note that the tracing also works with RTOS’s that support simulating on windows or off-target) The trace data can be retrieved by dumping a specific memory location on the target -or- by using a debugger to do a live stream of the trace data. This is an invaluable tool for debugging RTOS issues or getting a peek into how your RTOS is actually performing. Any project with an RTOS should make use of this tool. |
| CppCheck | Static Analysis | Free – $$ | Provides easy to configure static analysis on your code-base. There is a free version without MISRA rule checking if that is desired. Static Analysis always will produce more robust and safer code by finding possible issues in your code that generally aren’t caught in code reviews. Note: While there are 2 static analysis tools on this list, you should ideally just choose 1 to use. |
| CppDepend | Static Analysis | $ – $$ | Provides basic static analysis like CppCheck and then goes a step further by providing custom query creation to check for specific items in your code. For example, you can write a query to make sure MutexTake() calls have a matching MutexGive(). More complex queries are also possible. |
| Visual Studio Code | IDE | Free | Most likely everyone is aware of this IDE. That being said, it’s on the list of best tools because it is light-weight and doesn’t require project files. That means it’s perfect for projects that want to be IDE-agnostic (meaning there is no requirement in the code base to use a particular IDE). VS Code has thousands of plugins which support everything from ARM debugging to Zephyr RTOS integration. |
| pre-commit | Git Commit Hooks | Free | This tool will run all your pre-commit hooks automatically before checking code in. This is extremely useful and makes it easy to add in something like “clang-format” to enforce coding style guidelines. This way commits are rejected if they fail the “pre-commit” list of items to check. Uses a .yaml file to configure all pre-commit checks. When doing a “git commit”, it will automatically run whatever checks have been configured, and either allow or reject the commit. |
| Ceedling or GoogleTest | Unit Tests | Free | Ceedling is a complete unit testing build system that integrates Unity and CMock. Simple to use and free, however, it is intended only for C projects. If using C++, then GoogleTest is the way to go, and is very similar to Unity/CMock. Unit testing on your codebase allows testing of specific inputs to functions such as NaN, INF, Null pointers, etc. Unit testing will force developers to write smaller, cleaner code modules which will result in easier to manage code. Moreover, doing this type of testing gives you the ability to have 100% line and/or branch coverage on the actual lines of code. Unit tests are generally run off-target (not on real-hardware) so they can execute as fast as possible and be run every time the Firmware is built. |
| Jama Connect | Requirements Management | $$$ | Excellent requirements management tool that allows tracing the full lifecycle (i.e. marketing requirements->firmware requirements->test cases and results). Includes bug tracking and traceability as well. Jama provides history and review capability for all requirements and a REST-API to integrate into CI/CD tools. It is much easier to use and configure than something like IBM Doors. The downside is it’s an expensive tool, but at the moment there aren’t many (really any) competitors in the requirements management space that provide the features Jama does. |
| LVGL Library | Graphics Development (applies only to projects with LCD screens) | Free – $ | Open source graphical UI development library specifically aimed at embedded microcontrollers. It’s a free library, but they also provide paid development services to create a UI for a client. Excellent to use when looking for a graphics library where changes can easily be reviewed vs. having an unreviewable binary executable for UI dev. LVGL is flexible and should work with any type of screen – it’s also built to be small in library size to fit on microcontrollers with little memory. Comes with an editor and uses XML to lay out designs. Supports multiple languages as well. The only downside is that the monochrome support is a bit tricky to get working. To be used for a monochrome display, the flush callback function must be modified to convert the internal buffers LVGL uses (which assume a minimal color palette) to map to a monochrome display. |
| TeamCity | CI/CD Tool | $ – $$ | TeamCity allows you to integrate with basically any build system, any script, any VM, or anything with a REST-API. Everything is graphically based (you have the option to also script everything instead), so it makes setting up build agents or a general CI Pipeline very easy. This pick is contentious because if you’re using Azure DevOps for example as your CI/CD, you’re not necessarily going to switch to TeamCity. If you’re looking for a free CI/CD tool, Jenkins is a possibility. Keep in mind Jenkins will have a learning curve to it and is nowhere near as full-featured as TeamCity or many other CI tools. |
| EmbedOps | DevOps Platform | Free – $ | This is a new and unique tool that attempts to bring together your automated builds, tests, CI Pipelines, and results. It aims to provide an overview into the entire process, whereas tools such as TeamCity/Jenkins/GitHub-Actions provide the pipelines and CI tools, but don’t necessarily show the full picture. EmbedOps is a web-based and CLI tool that containerizes your development process and toolchains and gives you a single location to track and reproduce everything. It doesn’t replace repositories, CI tools, or Unit Tests – but instead brings everything together into a single dashboard for easy management. A few things it provides besides the development integration:
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Simplifying Firmware Development in 2025: The Right Tools, Not More Tools
In 2025, firmware developers are empowered with a wide array of tools that can dramatically enhance productivity, streamline development workflows, and improve code quality. However, the best firmware development tools are not always the newest or flashiest — they are the ones that simplify complexity, integrate smoothly into your processes, and help your team deliver reliable, maintainable code. Whether you’re selecting an RTOS tracing tool like Percepio Tracealyzer, setting up automated static analysis with CppCheck or CppDepend, or managing your CI/CD pipelines with TeamCity, the goal should always be to build a toolchain that supports your project’s unique needs without unnecessary overhead.
If you’re looking to modernize your embedded firmware workflow, EmbedOps offers a streamlined DevOps platform designed specifically for embedded teams. With EmbedOps, you can consolidate your builds, tests, and toolchains into a single, repeatable environment — saving time, reducing risk, and accelerating your development cycles. Sign up for free to see how EmbedOps can simplify your embedded DevOps process.
Have an upcoming firmware project or a development challenge you’d like to solve? Let’s talk. Our team at Dojo Five is always ready to collaborate and help you build better firmware faster.
