Technical Debt Score Estimator
Score six signals to find out whether your codebase is healthy, drifting, or ready for modernization.
The Tech Debt Score Estimator scores six leading indicators of technical debt — codebase age, test coverage, dependency freshness, unresolved bugs, documentation and team turnover, and deployment difficulty — to give you a fast read on whether your codebase is healthy, drifting, or carrying critical risk. It's built for CTOs, engineering leads, and founders who suspect their codebase is slowing delivery but need a structured way to confirm it before proposing a fix.
Answer six multiple-choice questions and get an instant score out of 18, mapped to a Low, Medium, or Critical technical debt tier — with a specific next step for each.
How old is the core codebase?
What is the current automated test coverage like?
When was the last major dependency/framework update?
How many known, unresolved bugs or production issues exist?
How would you rate documentation and recent developer turnover?
How often can you confidently deploy, and how hard is it?
Answer all 6 questions to see your result.
How this is calculated
Each of the 6 questions is scored 0-3 points based on your answer, for a maximum score of 18. Scores of 0-4 indicate low debt, 5-10 indicate medium debt worth addressing soon, and 11-18 indicate critical debt carrying active delivery and reliability risk. This is a self-reported directional score based on the signals you provide, not a static code analysis — a code-level audit is the next step for a precise picture.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good technical debt score?+
A score of 0-4 (out of 18) is considered low technical debt — the codebase is healthy and only needs proactive maintenance. Scores of 5-10 signal medium debt that is starting to slow delivery, and 11-18 signals critical debt carrying real business risk.
How often should I run this assessment?+
Re-run it every 3-6 months, or after a major dependency upgrade, team change, or release incident — technical debt compounds quietly, so a regular check catches drift before it becomes critical.
What are the biggest drivers of technical debt?+
The six signals scored here — codebase age, test coverage, dependency freshness, unresolved bugs, documentation/team turnover, and deployment difficulty — are the most common leading indicators of rising technical debt.
Does a high score mean I need a full rewrite?+
Not necessarily. Most codebases with critical debt scores are better served by an incremental modernization plan than a full rewrite. A code-level audit determines which modules can be modernized in place.
What to do with your result
A medium or critical score is a signal to scope a fix before it compounds — the specific next step depends on how tightly coupled the system is and which modules are highest risk.
Webvoid Technologies (based in Chittoor, India, working with teams globally) runs code health reviews and modernization projects end to end. Get a free 20-minute code health review with an engineer.
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