The shortlist
The coding-agent decision is really a decision about where you want the agent to live: in your terminal, in your IDE, or on your own metal. One strong pick per home.
Paid product
An agentic coding tool that lives in the terminal and works across your whole repo — strongest when you delegate real multi-file tasks rather than autocomplete lines.
— You want a full visual IDE experience rather than a terminal-first workflow.
Freemium
The AI-native IDE — agent mode, multi-file edits, and codebase context inside a familiar editor. The gentlest on-ramp for a team switching from plain VS Code.
— You need a self-hosted or open-source tool, or prefer working in your existing editor.
68k stars · Open source · Rust
The open-source classic of the category — runs entirely on your machine, works with local models, and costs only the compute you feed it.
— You want a managed product with support and guardrails.
Trial on your own codebase, not the demos — repo size, language mix, and your review culture change the answer. And whatever you choose, the leverage comes from what you let it do: agents shine on scoped, verifiable tasks with tests to check them.
