A curated list of alternatives to Cursor, the AI-first code editor designed to accelerate software development using Large Language Models (LLMs).
Cursor markets itself as an "AI-first code editor," aiming to build a development environment where Artificial Intelligence is not just an add-on but a core component of the workflow. It's often built as a fork or utilizes architectures similar to VS Code, allowing it to leverage a familiar UI and extension ecosystem while deeply integrating AI capabilities. Key features typically include:
- AI Chat: Conversational interface integrated into the editor for asking coding questions, getting explanations, brainstorming solutions, and debugging help, often with awareness of your codebase.
- AI Code Generation & Editing: Generating code blocks, completing lines or functions, refactoring existing code, fixing errors, and generating documentation based on natural language prompts or context.
- Codebase Awareness: The AI attempts to understand the context of your entire project or relevant files, not just the immediate code snippet, leading to more relevant suggestions.
- AI Debugging: Assisting in identifying and fixing bugs by analyzing code and error messages.
- Inline AI Actions: Applying AI assistance directly within the code editor without switching context.
While Cursor offers a compelling vision for AI-integrated development, users might seek alternatives for various reasons:
- Editor Preference: Many developers have deep-rooted preferences for established editors like VS Code, JetBrains IDEs (IntelliJ, PyCharm, WebStorm), Vim, or Neovim, and prefer adding AI capabilities via extensions rather than switching editors entirely.
- Cost: Cursor's pricing model (especially for advanced features or team usage) might not suit everyone. Many alternatives offer generous free tiers or are fully open source.
- Privacy Concerns: Using cloud-based AI models involves sending code snippets (or more context) to third-party servers. Some developers or organizations prefer tools offering local models, more transparent data handling policies, or self-hosting options.
- Feature Focus: Specific needs might be better served by tools specializing in certain areas, like code completion accuracy, specific language support, refactoring power, or integration with particular platforms.
- Open Source Philosophy: A preference for using and contributing to open-source tools.
- Performance: Concerns about the resource usage or responsiveness of an AI-heavy editor compared to a leaner setup.
- Flexibility and Modularity: Desire to mix and match different AI tools and plugins within a standard editor rather than using a single integrated, potentially opinionated, AI editor.
This list explores tools that provide AI-powered coding assistance, ranging from direct VS Code extensions to features integrated into other IDEs and standalone AI development platforms.
Disclaimer: The AI tooling landscape is evolving extremely rapidly. Features, pricing, and underlying models change frequently. Always verify details on the official product websites
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- Understanding the Landscape
- The Alternatives
- 1. GitHub Copilot (AI Assistant Plugin)
- 2. Tabnine (AI Assistant Plugin)
- 3. Amazon CodeWhisperer (AI Assistant Plugin)
- 4. Codeium (AI Assistant Plugin)
- 5. Cody by Sourcegraph (AI Assistant Plugin/Platform)
- 6. JetBrains AI Assistant (IDE Integrated AI)
- 7. Replit Ghostwriter (Web IDE Integrated AI)
- 8. AskCodi (AI Assistant Plugin)
- 9. Phind (AI Search Engine for Developers)
- 10. Open Source & Local Models (Various Tools/Setups)
- How to Choose the Right Alternative
- Contributing
- License
Alternatives to Cursor generally fall into these categories:
- AI Coding Assistant Plugins: These are extensions added to existing popular editors (VS Code, JetBrains, Vim, etc.). They provide features like code completion, chat, and sometimes refactoring. Examples: GitHub Copilot, Tabnine, Codeium, Cody. This is the most common type of alternative.
- IDEs with Native AI Integration: Existing IDEs that are incorporating AI features directly into their platform, often as a premium add-on. Examples: JetBrains AI Assistant, Replit Ghostwriter.
- AI-Enhanced Search/Knowledge Tools: Platforms focused on using AI to answer technical questions, often with code examples, acting as powerful search engines for developers. Example: Phind.
- Open Source / Local-First Solutions: Projects or setups designed to run AI models locally or provide open-source alternatives, prioritizing privacy and customization. Examples: FauxPilot, setups using Ollama.
- Other AI-First Editors: While Cursor is prominent, other editors might emerge with a similar "AI-first" philosophy. (This category is currently sparse).
The key difference from Cursor often lies in the degree and nature of integration. Cursor aims for AI to be fundamental to the editor itself, whereas plugins add AI capabilities to a pre-existing editor framework.
Here's a detailed look at notable alternatives:
- Website: https://github.com/features/copilot
- Tagline: Your AI pair programmer.
- Description: Developed by GitHub and OpenAI, Copilot is arguably the most well-known AI coding assistant and a primary competitor to the AI features within Cursor. It integrates directly into popular editors like VS Code, JetBrains IDEs, Visual Studio, and Neovim. Copilot excels at providing context-aware code completions (single-line and multi-line suggestions) as you type. It has evolved significantly to include "Copilot Chat," a conversational interface within the IDE (similar to Cursor's chat) for asking coding questions, explaining code, suggesting refactors, generating unit tests, and debugging. Copilot leverages powerful OpenAI models (like GPT-4). It learns from the context of your open files and project structure to provide relevant suggestions. While not a standalone editor like Cursor, its deep integration into VS Code (Cursor's common base) makes it a very direct functional alternative for AI assistance. GitHub offers plans for individuals, businesses (with enhanced privacy/management features), and provides it free for verified students and maintainers of popular open-source projects.
- Key Features:
- Context-aware code completion (autocomplete).
- Integrated Chat (Copilot Chat) for Q&A, refactoring, debugging, etc.
- Generation of code blocks, functions, tests, and documentation from prompts.
- Multi-language support.
- Integration with VS Code, JetBrains IDEs, Visual Studio, Neovim.
- Business tier with enhanced privacy features (e.g., snippet data not retained for model training).
- Suggestions based on project context.
- Editor Integration: VS Code, JetBrains IDEs, Visual Studio, Neovim.
- Pricing Model: Paid subscription (Individual/Business), Free for students/OSS maintainers.
- Why it's an Alternative: Provides core AI coding assistance (completion, chat, generation) directly within standard editors, offering much of Cursor's AI functionality without requiring a dedicated AI editor.
- Website: https://www.tabnine.com/
- Tagline: AI assistant for software developers. Code faster with AI completions.
- Description: Tabnine is another major player in the AI code completion space, often highlighted for its focus on privacy and team features. It integrates with a wide array of editors (VS Code, JetBrains, Sublime Text, Vim, Emacs, etc.). Tabnine offers multiple models, including options to run models locally on your machine or within your secure VPC, addressing privacy concerns associated with sending code to cloud services. This is a key differentiator compared to purely cloud-based services like the standard Copilot tier. Tabnine provides sophisticated code completions, often predicting entire lines or functions. Its Pro and Enterprise tiers offer more powerful cloud models or the self-hosting options, along with features like "Tabnine Chat" (similar to Copilot Chat/Cursor Chat) and team-specific customization where the AI can learn from a team's codebase (respecting permissions and privacy settings) to provide highly relevant suggestions aligned with internal conventions.
- Key Features:
- Advanced code completions (line, function, block).
- Multiple model options (including local/private cloud).
- Strong emphasis on privacy and security (especially Enterprise).
- "Tabnine Chat" for code explanation, generation, testing.
- Team learning capabilities (AI adapts to team codebase/patterns).
- Wide editor support (VS Code, JetBrains, Sublime, Vim, Eclipse, etc.).
- Supports many programming languages.
- Editor Integration: VS Code, JetBrains IDEs, Sublime Text, Vim, Emacs, Eclipse, Atom, etc.
- Pricing Model: Free tier (basic completions), Paid Pro tier (advanced models, chat), Enterprise tier (privacy, customization, self-hosting).
- Why it's an Alternative: Offers powerful AI code completion and chat features within standard editors, with unique strengths in privacy options (local models) and team-based learning, appealing to users hesitant about cloud AI or needing tailored team suggestions.
- Website: https://aws.amazon.com/codewhisperer/
- Tagline: Build applications faster and more securely with your AI coding companion.
- Description: CodeWhisperer is Amazon's entry into the AI coding assistant arena. It integrates into editors like VS Code, JetBrains IDEs, and AWS's own Cloud9 IDE and Lambda console. A major differentiator is its focus on security scanning – it can identify potential security vulnerabilities directly in the generated or existing code. Another key feature is reference tracking: CodeWhisperer can flag code suggestions that resemble open-source training data and provide references, helping developers manage licensing compliance. It offers code completions, explanations, and generation similar to competitors. Amazon provides a generous free tier for individual use, making it highly accessible. For AWS users, it naturally integrates well with AWS services and toolkits. While perhaps less known than Copilot, its security features, reference tracking, and free individual tier make it a compelling option.
- Key Features:
- Code completion (line, function).
- Built-in Security Scanning (identifies vulnerabilities).
- Reference Tracker (provides citations for code resembling training data).
- Integration with popular IDEs and AWS services.
- Supports multiple programming languages.
- Free tier available for individual developers.
- Professional tier with organizational management features.
- Editor Integration: VS Code, JetBrains IDEs, AWS Cloud9, AWS Lambda Console, Visual Studio (Preview).
- Pricing Model: Free for Individual Use, Paid Professional Tier (per user/month).
- Why it's an Alternative: Provides core AI coding assistance within standard IDEs, with unique value propositions in security scanning and license compliance tracking, plus a strong free tier.
- Website: https://codeium.com/
- Tagline: The modern coding superpower. Free AI code completion & chat.
- Description: Codeium has rapidly gained popularity, positioning itself strongly with a "free forever for individuals" promise for its core AI code completion and chat features. It boasts broad integration support across numerous IDEs (VS Code, JetBrains, Sublime, Vim, Emacs, Visual Studio, Jupyter, Colab, etc.) and languages. Codeium offers both inline code suggestions (autocomplete) and an integrated chat panel ("Codeium Chat") for generating code, explaining concepts, refactoring, adding documentation, and more – functionalities directly comparable to Cursor's AI features. They emphasize speed and responsiveness. While offering paid Teams and Enterprise plans with additional features like personalization, self-hosting, and enhanced support, the robust free tier makes it a highly attractive alternative for individual developers or those experimenting with AI assistants without upfront costs. They claim their models are trained on permissively licensed data.
- Key Features:
- AI Code Completion (Autocomplete).
- Integrated AI Chat (Codeium Chat).
- Code generation, explanation, refactoring, documentation features.
- Broad IDE and language support.
- Emphasis on speed and responsiveness.
- Free tier for individual developers.
- Paid tiers for Teams/Enterprise (personalization, self-hosting).
- Editor Integration: VS Code, JetBrains IDEs, Sublime Text, Vim, Emacs, Visual Studio, Jupyter, Google Colab, Deepnote, Eclipse, etc.
- Pricing Model: Free for Individuals, Paid Teams/Enterprise tiers.
- Why it's an Alternative: Offers a comprehensive suite of AI assistance features (completion, chat) comparable to Cursor's AI, integrated into standard editors, with a very strong free offering for individuals.
- Website: https://sourcegraph.com/cody
- Tagline: AI coding assistant that knows your entire codebase.
- Description: Cody is Sourcegraph's AI coding assistant, designed to leverage Sourcegraph's deep understanding of codebases. While it offers standard AI features like code completion and chat within editors (VS Code, JetBrains, Neovim), its key differentiator is its potential for superior codebase context awareness. By integrating with Sourcegraph's code intelligence platform (which indexes and understands code structure, history, and relationships across large codebases), Cody aims to provide highly accurate and contextually relevant answers, explanations, and code generations, especially in complex projects. It allows defining custom commands for reusable AI prompts. Cody can be used against Sourcegraph Cloud or self-hosted Sourcegraph instances. It offers free and paid tiers, with enterprise options focusing on security and deep codebase understanding.
- Key Features:
- Code Completion and Generation.
- AI Chat with strong codebase context awareness (via Sourcegraph integration).
- Code explanation, refactoring, test generation.
- Customizable AI commands.
- Integration with VS Code, JetBrains IDEs, Neovim.
- Works with Sourcegraph Cloud or self-hosted instances.
- Focus on understanding large and complex codebases.
- Editor Integration: VS Code, JetBrains IDEs, Neovim.
- Pricing Model: Free tier (limited usage), Paid Pro tier, Enterprise tier (self-hosted options).
- Why it's an Alternative: Provides AI assistance within standard editors, but differentiates strongly on deep codebase understanding, making it potentially more powerful than competitors for navigating and working within large, complex projects.
- Website: https://www.jetbrains.com/ai/
- Tagline: Deeper integration into JetBrains IDEs.
- Description: Instead of just a plugin, JetBrains is building its AI Assistant directly into its suite of popular IDEs (IntelliJ IDEA, PyCharm, WebStorm, GoLand, etc.). This allows for potentially tighter integration with the IDE's existing features like code analysis, refactoring tools, and UI elements. The AI Assistant provides features like code completion, integrated chat for questions and explanations, AI-powered refactoring suggestions, commit message generation, and documentation generation. It aims to feel like a natural extension of the JetBrains development experience. It's offered as a paid subscription add-on to a standard JetBrains IDE license. The underlying models and service providers might vary, but JetBrains emphasizes integration and leveraging the IDE's deep code understanding.
- Key Features:
- Deep integration within JetBrains IDEs.
- AI Code Completion.
- Integrated AI Chat.
- AI-assisted Refactoring.
- Commit Message Generation.
- Documentation Generation (e.g., JavaDoc, DocStrings).
- Context-aware actions using IDE's code intelligence.
- Editor Integration: Tightly integrated into JetBrains IDEs (IntelliJ IDEA, PyCharm, WebStorm, GoLand, Rider, etc.).
- Pricing Model: Paid subscription add-on to a JetBrains IDE license.
- Why it's an Alternative: For developers already invested in the JetBrains ecosystem, this offers AI capabilities similar to Cursor but directly within their preferred, powerful IDE environment, potentially offering smoother integration than third-party plugins.
- Website: https://replit.com/ghostwriter
- Tagline: The AI pair programmer for Replit.
- Description: Replit is a popular browser-based IDE focused on rapid development, collaboration, and easy deployment. Ghostwriter is its integrated AI coding assistant. Because Replit controls the entire environment (editor, compute, deployment), Ghostwriter can be deeply integrated. It offers features like code completion ("Complete Code"), code transformation/generation ("Transform Code"), code explanation ("Explain Code"), and debugging assistance ("Edit & Debug Code"). It functions within the Replit web interface, making it ideal for users who primarily work within that ecosystem. While not a desktop editor alternative like Cursor, it represents a similar philosophy of tightly integrated AI within a specific development environment, albeit a web-based one.
- Key Features:
- Deeply integrated into the Replit web IDE.
- Code Completion.
- Code Generation & Transformation.
- Code Explanation.
- Debugging Assistance.
- Context-aware within the Replit environment.
- Editor Integration: Specific to the Replit web IDE.
- Pricing Model: Paid subscription ("Replit Core" plan includes Ghostwriter). Free tier users may have limited access or trials.
- Why it's an Alternative: Offers a tightly integrated AI experience within a specific IDE platform (Replit), similar in concept to Cursor's approach, but for a browser-based development workflow.
- Website: https://www.askcodi.com/
- Tagline: Code Faster, Code Smarter. Your AI Pair Programmer.
- Description: AskCodi provides an AI assistant primarily through extensions for VS Code and JetBrains IDEs. It focuses on providing a suite of tools accessible via a dedicated panel or commands, rather than just inline completion (though it may offer that too). Users can select code and ask AskCodi to explain it, generate documentation (docstrings), write unit tests, translate code between languages, check for complexity, and more. It presents itself as a toolbox of AI capabilities for developers. It supports numerous languages and offers both free and premium plans with varying usage limits and features.
- Key Features:
- Suite of AI tools (explanation, documentation, testing, translation).
- Accessible via dedicated panel/commands in the IDE.
- Supports many programming languages.
- Integrates with VS Code and JetBrains IDEs.
- Free and Premium subscription tiers.
- Editor Integration: VS Code, JetBrains IDEs.
- Pricing Model: Free tier (limited usage), Paid Premium/Team tiers.
- Why it's an Alternative: Provides a range of AI assistance features accessible within standard editors, focusing on specific tasks like documentation and test generation beyond just completion.
- Website: https://www.phind.com/
- Tagline: The AI search engine for developers.
- Description: While not an editor or a direct plugin providing inline completion, Phind tackles a core task often delegated to AI assistants: answering technical questions and finding coding solutions. It's an AI-powered search engine specifically optimized for developer queries. It provides direct answers, often with code examples synthesized from multiple sources, citing its origins. It aims to be faster and more direct than traditional search engines or even general-purpose LLMs like ChatGPT for coding problems. It offers different models (including potentially faster free ones and more powerful paid options like GPT-4). Developers might use Phind alongside their editor (with a standard AI plugin or none) as a powerful external "oracle" for complex questions or research, fulfilling the Q&A aspect that tools like Cursor or Copilot Chat offer internally.
- Key Features:
- AI-powered search optimized for developers.
- Provides direct answers with synthesized code examples.
- Cites sources for its information.
- Offers different underlying AI models (free/paid).
- Web-based interface.
- Can remember conversation context.
- Editor Integration: None (Web-based tool used alongside an editor).
- Pricing Model: Free tier, Paid "Phind Plus" subscription for more powerful models and higher limits.
- Why it's an Alternative: Addresses the critical "ask AI questions" aspect of tools like Cursor, potentially offering superior search/answer capabilities as a specialized external tool, complementing rather than directly replacing the editor integration.
- Description: For users prioritizing privacy, cost-effectiveness (potentially free after setup), offline capability, or customization, open-source projects and locally run models offer compelling alternatives. This is a rapidly developing area.
- Examples:
- FauxPilot: An attempt to set up a self-hosted alternative to GitHub Copilot using models like Salesforce CodeGen running locally or on a private server. Requires technical setup (Docker, model downloading). Quality may vary depending on the chosen model and hardware.
- Continue (dev): An open-source autopilot for software development, integrating with VS Code and JetBrains. It allows connecting to various local or remote LLMs (via Ollama, LM Studio, Together AI, OpenAI, Anthropic, etc.) and provides chat, context awareness (using embeddings), and tools for applying AI suggestions. Highly configurable.
- Ollama + Editor Plugins: Ollama makes it easy to run various open-source LLMs (like Llama 3, Mistral, CodeLlama, Phi-3) locally. Combined with generic LLM connector plugins in VS Code (e.g.,
continue,twinny, various Ollama-specific plugins) or other editors, users can build their own AI assistance workflow powered by local models. This offers maximum privacy but requires setup and depends on the capability of the chosen open-source models and the quality of the connector plugin.
- Key Features (General):
- Potential for full offline use (with local models).
- Enhanced privacy (code doesn't leave the local machine/network).
- No subscription fees (though hardware costs may apply).
- High degree of customization (model choice, prompts).
- Often requires more technical expertise to set up and maintain.
- Performance/Quality depends heavily on hardware and chosen model.
- Editor Integration: Varies (often VS Code, Neovim, Emacs have good community support).
- Pricing Model: Open Source (Free software, potential hardware/setup costs).
- Why it's an Alternative: Directly addresses core concerns like privacy, cost, and vendor lock-in by providing open-source and/or local-first solutions, offering a different philosophy compared to cloud-dependent commercial tools.
Consider these factors when selecting an alternative to Cursor:
- Preferred Editor: If you love VS Code, JetBrains, Vim, etc., choose a plugin that integrates well (Copilot, Tabnine, Codeium, Cody, CodeWhisperer, JetBrains AI). If you like web-based workflows, consider Replit.
- Budget:
- Free: Codeium (individuals), CodeWhisperer (individuals), Tabnine (basic), OSS options (FauxPilot, Ollama setups), free tiers of Cody/AskCodi.
- Paid: GitHub Copilot, Tabnine Pro/Enterprise, JetBrains AI, Replit Ghostwriter, Codeium Teams, Cody Pro, Phind Plus.
- Privacy:
- Highest Privacy: Local models via Ollama + plugins, Continue (configured for local), Tabnine (local model option/self-hosted Enterprise), FauxPilot.
- Enhanced Privacy (Enterprise): GitHub Copilot for Business, Tabnine Enterprise, Codeium Enterprise, Cody Enterprise.
- Cloud-Based (Check Policies): Standard Copilot, CodeWhisperer, Codeium (free/teams), Tabnine Pro, AskCodi, Replit, Phind.
- Core Need:
- Best Autocomplete: Copilot, Tabnine, Codeium are often highly rated.
- Powerful Chat/Q&A: Copilot Chat, Cody, Codeium Chat, Tabnine Chat, JetBrains AI Chat. Phind for external search.
- Codebase Understanding: Cody (especially with Sourcegraph), potentially JetBrains AI (leveraging IDE context).
- Security/Compliance: CodeWhisperer.
- Open Source/Customization: FauxPilot, Ollama setups, Continue.
- Team Features: Tabnine, Copilot for Business, Codeium Teams, Cody Enterprise often offer team management, custom model tuning, or enhanced privacy/security controls.
- Ecosystem Integration: CodeWhisperer (AWS), JetBrains AI (JetBrains IDEs), Replit Ghostwriter (Replit).
It's often worth trying the free tiers or trials of several tools to see which one best fits your workflow and preferences. The landscape is dynamic, so reassess periodically.
Contributions are welcome! Please read the contributing guidelines (you'll need to create this file) before submitting pull requests. If you know of another great alternative, found a