How to choose your coding agent: the decision in four questions
Guide to choosing a coding agent with judgment: what you already pay for, terminal or IDE, your real budget and how to test without marrying anyone.
AI for software development
Guides and comparator for AI programming tools: terminal agents like Claude Code and Codex, IDEs like Cursor and Windsurf, builders like Lovable and Bolt, and the orchestration, review and context layer around them. With 30 tools analyzed and checked pricing.
The guides, task by task
How to document a SaaS product with AI: video guides, chatbot and onboarding
How to document a SaaS product with AI: video guides with Guidde, a help chatbot with FastGPT, onboarding decks with Decktopus and an update routine.
How to give your coding agents product memory with PaellaDoc
Guide to solving context lost between sessions: from the instructions file to PaellaDoc's local factory with memory, gates and evidence.
How to review AI-generated code without anything slipping through
Guide to reviewing agent code: the three-pass technique, CodeRabbit as first filter and the typical failures AI commits with confidence.
Security of AI-generated code: the pass that admits no shortcuts
Security guide for agent code: the typical failures AI introduces, directed review, secrets and dependencies, and what to automate.
Your first project with coding agents: the complete system
Guide to building your agent workflow: the instructions file, calibrating what to delegate, review with a net and the habits separating success from scares.
How to build an application without knowing how to code, sensibly
Guide to building with AI without code: choosing between Lovable, Bolt and Replit, iterating without burning credits and knowing when to eject to code.
How to work with several coding agents in parallel
Guide to parallel agent work: slicing independent tasks, orchestrating with Conductor or Codex's cloud and not dying in review.
How to run migrations and batch tasks with coding agents
Guide to batch work with AI: the pilot that defines the pattern, scaling with Devin or Conductor and verifying twenty changes without reviewing twenty.
What coding with AI really costs (and how to pay less)
Guide to coding agents' real cost: the map from free to intensive, the two-agent strategy and the patterns that blow up the bill.
How to automate your daily work with free CLI agents
Guide to automating with free agents: Gemini CLI and OpenCode in scripts and scheduled tasks, Goose for flows that cross tools.
Built for this sector
They are built for this specific job, not adapted to it. Each one has its own review with a verdict, verified pricing and alternatives.
Cline
Free4.2 Good
The open source agent for VS Code that runs on whatever model you give it.
Modal
Free4.2 Good
Deploy Python functions on GPUs and call them as endpoints from your own product.
Amp
From $204.1 Good
Sourcegraph's agent: fixed plans from $20 a month, or pay-as-you-go with no minimum.
Baseten
Free4.1 Good
Inference infrastructure for serving models in production.
Goose
Free4.1 Good
Block's open agent, extensible and built to automate beyond code.
Kiro
Free + from $204.1 Good
The AWS editor that writes requirements, design and tasks before touching a line of code.
OpenHands
Free4.1 Good
The open source agent that picks up the labelled issue and opens the pull request on your own infrastructure.
Zed
Free + from $104.1 Good
The ultra-fast open source editor with agents and native collaboration.
Claude Code
From $174.0 Good
Anthropic's coding agent: works in your terminal, your IDE and the web.
Cursor
Free + from $204.0 Good
The code editor built around AI, with agents inside the IDE.
OpenAI Codex
Free + from $84.0 Good
OpenAI's coding agent, included with ChatGPT: local in your terminal or in the cloud.
OpenCode
Free4.0 Good
The open source terminal agent that works with any model provider.
GitHub Copilot
Free + from $103.9 Fair
The coding assistant built into GitHub and your IDE, from $10.
Hugging Face
Free + from $93.9 Fair
A catalogue of open models with managed inference to call them from your product.
Aider
Free3.8 Fair
The veteran free terminal coding agent: you bring the API key.
Conductor
Free3.8 Fair
Orchestrates several Claude Code agents in parallel from a Mac app.
FastGPT
Free + from 99 CNY3.8 Fair
Open-source platform for building RAG chatbots on your documents.
CodeRabbit
Free + from $243.7 Fair
Automatic pull request review with context: it comments before a human arrives.
Jules
Free3.7 Fair
Google's asynchronous agent: leave it tasks and it brings back finished changes.
Kilo Code
Free3.7 Fair
Open source agent for VS Code and JetBrains: the tool is free and you only pay for the model.
PaellaDocOur own product
Free3.7 Fair
The autonomous local software factory: from discovery to validated code on your Mac.
v0
Free + from $303.7 Fair
Vercel's interface generator: from description to ready components and pages.
Antigravity
Free3.6 Fair
The Google editor where the agent drives editor, terminal and browser, and hands back proof of what it did.
Qwen Code
From $503.6 Fair
Alibaba's terminal agent, now paid, with models that punch above their price.
Base44
Free + from $203.5 Fair
Build the app by describing it, with database, users and deployment already included.
DeepSource
Free + from $243.5 Fair
Deterministic static analysis first and an AI agent second, with security as the argument.
Devin
Free + from $203.5 Fair
Cognition's autonomous engineer, now across four surfaces: Desktop (the former Windsurf), Cloud, CLI and Review.
Kimi CLI
Free + from $193.5 Fair
Moonshot's terminal agent: open source with very low API prices.
Replit
Free + from $203.5 Fair
The complete cloud environment where the agent builds, runs and deploys your app.
Trae
Free + from $33.5 Fair
ByteDance's AI IDE: frontier models at rock-bottom prices.
Warp
Free + from $203.5 Fair
The terminal rebuilt around AI: agents, completions and teams.
AIML API
Free trial · from $203.4 Fair
One API for hundreds of AI models, with a single key.
Greptile
Free + from $303.4 Fair
Pull request reviewer that indexes the whole repository before commenting on a change.
Lovable
Free + from $253.4 Fair
Describe the app you want and it builds it complete, database and deployment included.
Qodo
Free trial · from $303.4 Fair
Pull request review by specialised agents, with a credit pool shared across the team.
Sourcery
Free + from $123.4 Fair
The cheapest pull request reviewer in the segment, with an editor extension included.
Gemini CLI
Free3.3 Fair
Google's terminal agent, open source with a generous free tier.
Tabnine
From $393.3 Fair
An IDE coding assistant you can deploy on your own infrastructure.
Bolt.new
Free + from $253.1 Fair
Builds and edits complete web apps from the browser with an agent.
Gemini Code Assist
Free trial · from $193.0 Fair
Google's AI inside VS Code and the JetBrains IDEs, with context from your repository.
General tools that also work here
They are not sector tools, but the guides above genuinely use them for specific tasks. They sit apart because, mixed in, they would bury the ones above.
Z.ai (GLM)
Free + from $184.0 Good
The assistant behind the GLM models, with its weights published openly.
Guidde
Free + from $193.9 Fair
Step-by-step video guides created automatically as you work.
Decktopus
Free + from $9.993.7 Fair
Professional presentations generated with AI in minutes.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a coding agent and an IDE assistant?
The assistant autocompletes and answers while you type. The agent takes the whole task, reads the repository, edits files and executes until done, with your review at the end. Agents like Claude Code or Codex are this generation's real productivity jump.
Which one should I pick starting from zero?
It depends on what you already pay for and where you work: if you have paid Claude or ChatGPT, their agent is included. To try for free, Gemini CLI and Qwen Code have generous free tiers, and Copilot has the cheapest paid entry inside the IDE.
Do builders like Lovable replace knowing how to code?
For validating ideas and internal tools, in practice yes: they produce the complete app from a description. For a serious growing product, the project ends up demanding real code, and exporting to code is the criterion separating the serious options.
How much does coding with AI cost per month?
From zero on free tiers and open source tools, up to $20-25 for the typical subscription of a frontier agent or IDE. Real spend climbs with model consumption under intensive use, so understand each plan's limits before choosing.