Cursor is the best GitHub Copilot alternative if you want a better AI editor, and Claude Code if you want a stronger agent. Both cost $20 a month, twice Copilot Pro, and both rank above Copilot in our best AI for coding ranking. The right pick depends on what Copilot is not giving you:
An agent that finishes hard, multi-hour tasks:Claude Code or OpenAI Codex.
A free tool: Google Antigravity or Codex on ChatGPT Free.
Full delegation from tickets: Devin.
Open source with your own keys: Cline.
Why people look for GitHub Copilot alternatives
The native agent is not the strongest
Copilot's own agent handles routine tickets well, but on hard, long-running tasks Claude Code and Codex are stronger, and both rank above it in our coding ranking.
Usage-based credits
The move from flat fees and premium requests to AI credits, with a variable flex allowance, disappointed some long-time users and makes heavy use harder to budget.
Accuracy on complex code
Reviewers on Capterra and Product Hunt say Copilot can be confidently wrong and struggles with project-specific logic and larger architectural changes.
You are not on GitHub
The cloud agent, pull-request reviews and third-party agents all live on GitHub.com. Teams on GitLab or Bitbucket get much less from a Copilot seat.
Training on personal-plan data
On Free, Pro and Pro+, GitHub may use your interactions to train models unless you opt out, which some developers would rather avoid entirely.
GitHub Copilot alternatives at a glance
Tool
Best for
Price from
Free plan
Our score
GitHub Copilot for comparison
Teams on GitHub who want the best value inside any IDE
by Cursor (Anysphere, part of SpaceX) · from $20/month (Pro) · free plan
9.0/10
Cursor is the natural step up for VS Code users. It is a full editor built on VS Code, so extensions and shortcuts carry over, with predictive tab completion, an agent that edits across many files, cloud agents, a CLI and Bugbot for pull-request review. Reviewers praise how well it understands a whole project. It ranks #3 in our best AI for coding list, three places above Copilot, mainly for its editing experience. The costs: Pro is $20 against Copilot's $10, Teams is $40 per user against $19, and usage pools make bills harder to predict. See Cursor vs GitHub Copilot.
Versus GitHub Copilot:Better editing experience; twice the price and its own editor rather than a plugin.
Claude Code is the tool we rank #1 for coding. It takes a task, works through your repository, runs the tests, fixes what breaks and opens a pull request, and it can work for hours with little input. It runs in the terminal, VS Code, JetBrains, a desktop app, the web and mobile, and teams can shape it with project rules, skills and hooks. You get it with Claude Pro at $20 a month; full-time users usually need Max from $100. If you like Copilot but want a stronger agent, note that Copilot Pro+ can also hand tasks to Anthropic's Claude agent from GitHub.
Versus GitHub Copilot:A much stronger agent, but no free tier and no inline autocomplete focus.
by OpenAI · from $0 (ChatGPT Free); $20/month Plus · free plan
9.2/10
Codex comes with every ChatGPT plan, including Free and the $8 Go plan, and runs as an open-source CLI, an IDE extension for VS Code, Cursor and Windsurf, a desktop app and a cloud service. On the independent Terminal-Bench 2.1 leaderboard, Codex CLI with GPT-6 Astra is first at 87.4%, the best verified agent result we track. It ranks second in our coding list. For teams, ChatGPT Business costs $20 per user billed yearly ($25 monthly) and includes Codex along with the rest of ChatGPT.
Versus GitHub Copilot:Top benchmark score and bundled with ChatGPT; fewer IDE integrations than Copilot.
Antigravity is Google's agent-first development platform, with an IDE, a CLI and an SDK. Its free Individual plan beats Copilot Free on volume: unlimited tab completions, unlimited command requests and basic weekly agent limits, against Copilot Free's 2,000 completions a month. It includes Gemini 3.8 Flash and Gemini 3.1 Pro, and also Claude Sonnet and Opus 4.6 and gpt-oss-120b. Higher limits come with Google AI Pro or Ultra subscriptions, and organisations can pay through Google Cloud. It ranks just below Copilot in our coding list.
Versus GitHub Copilot:More generous free tier; weaker enterprise controls and fewer IDEs.
#5 · Best for assigning tickets to an autonomous engineer
Devin
by Cognition · from $20/month (Pro) · free plan
7.9/10
Devin is designed for delegation. You assign a ticket in Slack or the web app, it works on its own cloud machine and returns a pull request, much like Copilot's cloud agent but with more autonomy. The free plan includes a light agent quota, unlimited tab completions and inline edits, and Windsurf's pricing page now redirects to Devin's plans. Pro at $20 adds frontier models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and SpaceX AI plus Cognition's SWE-2. Team costs $80 a month plus $40 per developer seat, well above Copilot Business, and independent benchmark data is thin.
Versus GitHub Copilot:More hands-off than Copilot's cloud agent; pricier for teams and less proven.
#6 · Best for open source, any model, no training worries
Cline
by Cline · from Free (you pay your model provider) · free plan
8.2/10
Cline is an open-source coding agent for VS Code and the command line. You bring your own API key from Anthropic, OpenAI, Google or another provider and pay only for tokens, with no subscription or credit allowance. Cline describes its design as client-side, and your data policy is whatever your chosen model provider offers, which can suit developers who dislike Copilot's personal-plan training default. It supports MCP through its marketplace. Enterprise plans with SSO, a JetBrains extension and central billing are sold separately.
Versus GitHub Copilot:Free and fully open; no inline completions focus and more setup than Copilot.
How to choose the right GitHub Copilot alternative
Match the alternative to the gap you feel in Copilot.
Your frustration with Copilot
Try
Starting price
Editing feels clunky
Cursor
$20/month
The agent gives up on hard tasks
Claude Code or OpenAI Codex
$20/month (Codex also free)
You want to pay nothing
Google Antigravity
$0
You want to delegate whole tickets
Devin
$20/month
You want open source and control over data
Cline
Free plus API costs
Before switching, remember that Copilot Pro+ ($39) already lets you send tasks to Anthropic's Claude and OpenAI's Codex agents from GitHub, which may close the gap without a new tool. For teams, compare total cost carefully: Copilot Business at $19 per user is cheaper than every paid team plan here. See our best AI for coding ranking for full scores.
Switching tips from our editors
Cancel before your next billing date: cancellation takes effect at the end of the current cycle. If your company assigns you a Copilot Business seat, GitHub cancels your personal plan and refunds the unused part automatically.
Copy your repository custom instructions into the new tool's rules file. Claude Code, for example, reads CLAUDE.md and can also read AGENTS.md, so a single shared file can serve several tools.
Reconnect your MCP servers. Copilot, Cursor, Claude Code and Cline all support the MCP standard, so tool connections usually move with a small config change.
Keep Copilot's free plan for completions while you trial an agent such as Claude Code or Codex. They work side by side in the same editor.
Admins: use user-level budgets to cap Copilot spend during a trial. A $0 budget blocks that user's Copilot access at once, so apply it only to people who have fully switched.
The unit GitHub uses to bill Copilot's model use. One credit costs $0.01, and each plan includes a monthly allowance.
Flex allotment
Extra included credits on top of a plan's fixed base credits. GitHub may change the amount over time.
Cloud agent
An AI agent that works on a task on a remote computer, such as GitHub's servers, and hands back a pull request for you to review.
Next edit suggestions
Copilot predicts the next change you are likely to make in your code, not just the rest of the current line.
IP indemnity
A promise that the vendor will defend you if someone claims AI-suggested code infringes their copyright, under stated conditions.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best alternative to GitHub Copilot?
Cursor if you want a better AI editor, and Claude Code if you want a stronger agent. Both start at $20 a month and rank above Copilot in our best AI for coding ranking.
Is there a free alternative to GitHub Copilot?
Yes. Google Antigravity's free plan offers unlimited tab completions and weekly agent limits. Codex works on ChatGPT Free, Devin and Cursor have free plans, and Cline is free open-source software where you pay only your model provider.
Is Cursor better than Copilot?
For AI-first editing, yes: Cursor ranks #3 in our coding ranking and Copilot #6. Copilot is cheaper and works in more IDEs. See Cursor vs GitHub Copilot.
Is Claude Code better than GitHub Copilot?
For autonomous, multi-file tasks, yes: Claude Code is our #1 coding tool. Copilot is cheaper, has a free plan and is better for inline completions across many IDEs. Many developers use both.
What is the best Copilot alternative for JetBrains?
Claude Code, which has a JetBrains plugin. Cline also offers a JetBrains extension on its Enterprise plan. Cursor and Antigravity are separate editors, so they mean leaving JetBrains.
Sources
Every fact on this page comes from public information. Vendor figures are labelled as vendor claims.